Living The Dream
by TimeLordPrime
Summary: This is an ongoing sequel to The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of. Even as Amy Pond has been reunited with the Doctor and finally gets to live out her dream life with him at last, a terrible accident forces the Doctor to make a decision that will have major repercussions on Amy and Clara's lives in order to save them from the Daleks. And that's only the start of Amy's adventures!
1. I'm The Doctor

LIVING THE DREAM

I do not own Doctor Who or the Maltese Falcon and I am making no profit off of this.

**This is a sequel to my story, The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of. You don't have to have read that story to understand this one though. All you need to know is that Amy is back in a new Flesh body and traveling with the Doctor and Clara. I hope that you'll enjoy it.**

CHAPTER 1

I'M THE DOCTOR

Amy Pond woke up to see the familiar surroundings of the TARDIS all around her and smiled as she said, "Yep, still here."

It had been several weeks since Amy had returned to the TARDIS, and she still couldn't get used to it. Every day she still woke up a bit surprised to find herself back in a young body and in her old room in the TARDIS once more. Part of her still worried that this was just some kind of dream and that she really wasn't here at all. Every day she feared that she would wake up to find herself old and alone once again. She was so glad every day when she woke up to hear the familiar sounds of the TARDIS in her ears instead.

The only downside to this otherwise wonderful new life of hers was that Rory wasn't in it. She still missed him even after all of these years. She had asked the Doctor about saving him too, but he had said that he still couldn't reach Rory physically and that his death was already a fixed point in time anyway that couldn't be altered. She knew that the Doctor was just as sad about that as she was.

She wasn't going to give up on the idea though. Maybe somehow someday she would come across something or someone that could help her to save him too without altering the timeline. She just had to try because she knew that Rory would do the same for her if their positions were reversed.

She also still wanted to save River somehow. She wanted some other way to see her daughter than to download herself into CAL. That was very disorienting and she definitely didn't enjoy the experience. She was more than willing to do it in order to talk to her again though. She didn't want things between them to stay like this forever however. She needed Melody there again on a regular basis so that she could be able to talk to her like a normal mother could. Somehow she was going to save her too.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Clara suddenly burst into her room without knocking and said in an excited voice, "Amy, you just have to come out here and see this!"

Amy smiled at her and wasn't in the slightest bit angry at her for barging in unannounced like that. She had long since gotten used to the Doctor doing that often with disastrous results back when she and Rory had been traveling with him together. Besides that they had already become such good friends in such a short time that Clara already knew that she was always invited in without even having to ask.

"I'm sure whatever it is that I've already seen it or something just like it before, Shorty," Amy said as she teased her new friend.

Clara frowned slightly but the smile never left her eyes as she said, "Oh, stop it with the grizzled old war veteran bit, Red. I can practically guarantee you that you've never seen anything like this before. Come on, Amelia. You really need to see this."

Amy smiled and said, "Alright, Mrs. Doctor, I'll be right out in a minute once I get dressed. I don't want to be caught outside the TARDIS in my nightie . . . again."

Clara winced as she said, "I told you to stop calling me that. What if the Doctor were to hear you? I love you, Amy, but sometimes you really get on my nerves."

Amy smiled as she said, "I'm just trying to get you to admit the truth to yourself, Souffle Girl. The sooner you do that the better off that you'll be believe me."

"I think that you just do it to watch me squirm," Clara said.

"That too," Amy admitted with a chuckle as she gave Clara a quirk hug.

Clara smiled already forgiving her as she said just before closing Amy's door, "I'll see you outside."

Amy quickly got dressed and went to join the Doctor and Clara who were already outside the TARDIS. As soon as she opened the doors, she gasped in absolute surprise.

"Did I call it or what?" Clara asked with a smug grin.

"Yeah, you certainly did," Amy said in a shocked voice.

She watched with a growing smile on her face as the night sky above her filled with meteors that suddenly exploded and formed a rainbow of multiple colors across the sky. Then a new group of meteors appeared, and the same thing happened again. This pattern continued to repeat itself over and over again as Amy stared in awe at the beauty unfolding before her. Each time the explosions created new and different colors and patterns across the heavens so that it was never the same twice.

"It's so beautiful," Amy said in a wistful voice.

The Doctor smiled at her like a kid at Christmas who had gotten exactly what he wanted. He was now happier than ever that he had finally gotten her back so that he could share all of the special moments in his life like this with her once more.

"It's the effect of the unique atmosphere of this place. It's more than capable of supporting life on the surface, but up in the higher levels as you get closer to space there are deadly concentrations of ionized plasma that form a natural protective shell over this world and instantly incinerate anything that tries to come here. That's what destroys the meteor showers that constantly come through this area of space, and the different colors are a result of the different types of materials that the meteors are made of reacting with the plasma and the different gases in the upper atmosphere to produce unique and very cool effects every time one of them explodes. The plasma shell helped protect the inhabitants of this world from being invaded for millennia. Even the Daleks didn't come here for the longest time. Of course the Daleks being the Daleks came up with a way around that eventually because they never let anything keep them from trying to annihilate every new race that they come across for long. Luckily someone was here to stop them when they eventually finally did show up," the Doctor said with a pleased look on his face.

"Let me guess. He wore a bow tie?" Amy asked with a grin.

"No. I think I wore the question mark sweater on that particular occasion. At least I think so. Or maybe I was Rainbow Man. No, I blew all of the Daleks up so I was definitely the Professor," the Doctor said confidently.

"The Professor? Rainbow Man?" Amy asked in amusement.

"Rainbow Man was his sixth self who wore this terrible multi-colored coat that even makes what he's wearing now look good. The Professor was what Ace, one of his old companions, called his seventh self who wore a sweater covered in question marks. The Doctor's never had very good taste in fashion except for maybe the Doctor before him. He wasn't so bad. He was actually a pretty snazzy dresser," Clara said.

Both the Doctor and Amy looked at her in surprise as the Doctor asked, "You know that from your echoes?"

"Yep. I remember more and more about their experiences with you now. I even remember meeting Ace on Ice World. I really liked her. How did you wind up hanging over that huge pit holding on for dear life at the bottom of your umbrella anyway? What was that about?" Clara asked with a grin.

"It was . . . I was trying to get a better look down the pit and well, it didn't quite work out like I planned it," the Doctor said.

Clara and Amy both smirked at him as he said in a flustered voice, "Shut up!"

Then he put an arm around both of them and smiled. He was so glad to have them both there even if they did tend to poke fun of him at times.

"You know you love it, Mr. Chin," Clara said always knowing exactly what he was thinking at all times just like usual.

He kissed both of his friends' foreheads before saying, "Come on. It's about to be daylight soon. You definitely won't be safe here when the sun rises. That's when the inhabitants of this place wake up."

"Why? Are they dangerous?" Amy asked.

"They're pacifists actually but they can be very dangerous without meaning to be since they're all giants compared to us, Amy. All of the people on this world are around forty to fifty feet tall on average and they probably wouldn't even notice you before they stepped on you. I almost had it happen to me once or twice. The poor fellow was very apologetic afterwards, but Ace wasn't so forgiving of him. She tried to blow him up with Nitro-9 and wound up giving him a hot foot instead," the Doctor said with a fond smile on his face.

"I wish I could have been there to see that," Amy said laughing.

"Oh, you would have really liked her," the Doctor agreed as he took Amy and Clara inside the TARDIS.

Not long after he dematerialized the TARDIS and left the giants of Lexa VII far behind, the ship started to shake violently. The Doctor rushed across the console as he tried desperately to figure out what was happening before the entire ship shook itself apart.

"Doctor, what's going on? Explain," Amy said in an irritated voice as she hung onto the console tightly as the shaking became worse and worse.

"There's no time for that right now, Pond. I'm much too busy trying to keep us all from being spun out into the Vortex forever," the Doctor said as he rushed past her.

"He doesn't know yet," Clara observed.

"Yep," Amy said having reached the same conclusion herself.

"I do too! What's happening is that we're experiencing a slight bit of temporal disturbance. It's probably due to someone moving a massive amount of ships through the Vortex," the Doctor said.

"A slight bit?!" Amy said as she glared at him.

"Just a slight bit is it? Are you sure about that, Chinny?" Clara said with an amused smile.

"Exactly, Clara. That's exactly right," the Doctor said with a reassuring smile.

"He's trying to downplay it so that we aren't scared," Clara said to Amy who rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well if I didn't fall for lines like that when I was seven, what makes you think that I will now, Raggedy Man?" Amy said with a frown.

The Doctor couldn't help but smile at that even as he continued to worry about the ship coming apart. He was trying to keep them from panicking, but as usual they were both made of sterner stuff than he gave them credit for.

Of course they were. He only took the best after all, and Amy and Clara were both the best of the best.

His smile was immediately gone however when the console suddenly began to light up with warning lights everywhere due to the massive damage being done to the ship, and he knew that he was going to have to land the ship soon or risk killing them all. Unfortunately he had absolutely no idea where he was going to wind up. He just hoped that it would be somewhere safe for them to stay for a while until the TARDIS had a chance to fix itself.

Right now almost anywhere was better than this though.

The Doctor quickly landed the TARDIS just as the console started to catch on fire all over it. The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that he had landed just in time. Another moment longer and he wouldn't have been able to since he wouldn't have been able to leave the Vortex and materialize anymore with all of the TARDIS' systems being shorted out at once like they were now.

After he put out the fires, he rushed to the console and smiled as he found that he could still see where they had arrived at on the display and said, "Twenty-first century Earth. Oh, it could have been so much worse. Now I just have to see where we are because it shows that we're several hundred feet above the ground moving slowly across London."

"So we're on a plane?" Amy wondered out loud.

The Doctor turned on the monitor and frowned as he saw a very familiar scene there. It was a place that he knew quite well since he had spent a year of his life there. A year that now had never happened.

"That doesn't look like a plane to me. Where are we, Doctor?" Clara asked as she looked at the monitor in puzzlement.

"You're right, Clara. It's not a plane. It's a flying aircraft carrier that UNIT uses sometimes. It's name is the Valiant," the Doctor said with a sinking feeling in both of his hearts at once.

He had a very bad feeling about being here just now. He and the Valiant had never been a good mix.

"Why do I get the feeling that you'd rather be anywhere but here, Raggedy Man? Are we in danger here?" Amy asked as she realized what that look on his face meant.

"No, I don't think so. At least we shouldn't be anyway. I just . . . have bad memories here," the Doctor said without explaining any further.

Amy nodded knowing that there were some things that he just didn't talk about in his past no matter what just like the mysterious Rose that she had heard him muttering about once when he thought that she couldn't hear him. She wasn't sure who she was, but she definitely got the message loud and clear that she wasn't to ask about her anymore when she tried questioning him about her. He had almost bit her head off about it and then immediately apologized afterwards.

The Doctor hesitantly opened the doors of the TARDIS to find that the entire ship was filled with Daleks!

"Wonderful. Well, that explains the temporal disturbance then," the Doctor said as he quickly closed the door and turned the TARDIS invisible.

"What is it?" Clara asked.

"Daleks. The entire ship is filled with them. They haven't seen us yet but they will. I have no way to get us out of here until the TARDIS fixes itself either," the Doctor said.

"I thought you said that this was a UNIT ship. What are the Daleks doing onboard?" Amy asked.

"We must have come right in the middle of one of their invasions of the Earth," the Doctor said.

"Lucky us," Clara said.

"So what do we do now?" Amy asked with concern.

"I'm going to have to do something that I normally wouldn't under most circumstances. I'm going to speed up the ship's maintenance cycle way past its maximum speed and hope that it doesn't do more harm than good because overclocking the TARDIS' systems like that can be very, very bad. It seems that we have no choice though," the Doctor said as he started to adjust the controls.

"We'll just have to risk it, Chinny. Hurry up," Clara said in a nervous voice as memories of being Oswin suddenly flashed through her mind and made her shake with fear.

"It's going to be okay, Clara," Amy said in a reassuring tone.

"Yeah, of course it is, Red," Clara said as she tried to be brave.

As the TARDIS' natural maintenance operations started to speed up faster and faster, the Doctor smiled. At this rate, they should be ready to go in less than ten minutes. As long as nothing else blew out by doing this that is.

Of course ten minutes was an eternity when you were in a ship covered in Daleks. The invisibility might buy them a little more time, but these were Daleks that he was dealing with so he didn't expect that to keep them from finding him for anywhere near long enough.

He just had to hope that he was wrong about that.

Unfortunately he wasn't. After just five minutes, they all heard the Daleks start screaming outside.

"THE DOCTOR'S TARDIS HAS BEEN DETECTED. HE MUST BE EXTERMINATED!" A chorus of Dalek voices started to shout in unison.

"No, not now! We still have five minutes left before we can go," the Doctor protested as the Daleks started shooting at the TARDIS.

The ship started being shaken all over again from the impact of the Dalek blasts, and the Doctor knew that the TARDIS' shields were already damaged enough from before that they wouldn't provide the ship with much protection against their attacks before they went down. They definitely weren't going to last long against that kind of firepower.

"I'm going to have to move the ship and hope that I don't make things worse. I'm still not sure what else might be damaged that I could make worse by moving her. Hold onto something. This could be bumpy. Geronimo!" the Doctor said as he started to fly the TARDIS across the Valiant as fast as he could.

The TARDIS' console began to catch on fire once again as the Doctor flew her out of the Valiant and away from the Daleks. He silently pleaded for the ship to hold on just a bit longer until he could safely land it as the fires on the console began to get even worse.

"I take it that the TARDIS didn't like that very much," Clara said.

"No, she didn't. Now the steering and flight controls are threatening to go out. If that happens, we'll drop like a rock. Come on, Old Girl. Just hang on a little longer until we're back on solid ground," the Doctor said.

"Well, if we go out this way at least it'll be fitting. This is the way that we first met after all with you crashing the TARDIS," Amy said.

"Don't worry, Amelia. We're not finished yet," the Doctor said with a smile.

Amy knew just by the use of her name that he was worried about both her and the situation that they were in. She could only hope that he wasn't lying to her.

Suddenly as the Doctor continued to adjust the controls on the console in a desperate attempt to keep the ship going, the area of the console that he was working on suddenly exploded in his face! The Doctor was flung to the floor with severe burns all over his body, and Amy and Clara screamed at him with concern.

As they bent over him to examine him, the TARDIS started to go out of control without anyone there to fly her. Clara ran to it immediately to see if she could do anything but soon found that none of the controls that she knew how to use were responding, and she had no idea what to do next.

"Amy, nothing's working anymore. We're free falling now," Clara said in alarm.

"Doctor, what do we do? Doctor!" Amy said.

The Doctor could barely keep his eyes open as he could already feel himself starting to automatically slip into a healing coma against his will. He was fighting it all that he could but he knew that it was only a matter of time until he did, and then they would all surely die without him there to land them safely. Clara knew how to fly the ship under normal circumstances, but these were far from normal after all. Only he could save them now, but only as long as he was awake in order to do it.

Suddenly a burst of inspiration struck the Doctor as a sudden, daring plan sprang into his mind. It wasn't something that he would do under normal circumstances, but he knew that this was the only way that they would survive now. He had to do it now while he still could and hope that there wouldn't be any consequences for it later.

Not for him or Amy.

"Amelia, there's a way out of this. You have to agree to help me with it though," the Doctor said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Of course I'll do it. I'll do whatever you say, Raggedy Man," Amy said in a desperate voice.

"Listen to me before you agree to anything, Amelia," the Doctor said in an even weaker voice as he quickly whispered something to her that Clara couldn't hear.

Amy looked at him with fear at first, and then she briefly looked at Clara and her expression quickly turned to one of quiet determination instead. Clara had no idea what was going on, but she knew that it must be something very bad for her friend to react like that.

She watched in confusion as Amy suddenly lay down next to the Doctor and held his hand. She had absolutely no idea what she was doing. Was she giving up?

Then Clara gasped as she saw the Doctor starting to glow, and then the two of them seemed to almost blur together until she couldn't tell where Amy started and the Doctor ended anymore. The light became brighter and brighter until she lost track of both of them completely and couldn't see either of them anymore.

The light faded after a few moments, and then Clara's heart stopped as she realized that the Doctor had completely vanished! Only Amy was lying there now.

"Amy, what happened? Where's the Doctor?" Clara asked with mounting fear.

Amy quickly got up and raced to the console where she manipulated the controls of the ancient ship like an expert now. Clara watched her in mute fascination as all by herself Amy fought with the uncooperative controls and despite everything still managed to safely land the TARDIS somewhere. Clara had had no idea how she had done it.

Actually an idea did come to mind of what had happened, but it was simply too horrible to her to even contemplate at that moment.

Amy didn't answer her. She simply checked over the console instead. Clara had absolutely no idea what she was doing.

Finally Clara asked again, "Amy, where is the Doctor?"

"I think you already know the answer to that, Shorty. You just don't want to admit it," Amy said with a small smile.

Suddenly there was a pounding on the TARDIS doors, and Amy went to answer them. As she opened the doors, she saw Kate Stewart standing there looking at her with a hopeful look on her face.

"Amy, Clara, it's so good to see both of you again. Please tell me that the Doctor is with you. The Daleks are everywhere, and we're swiftly losing ground against them. We desperately need his help," Kate said.

Fear filled Amy as she looked at Clara uncertain of what to say. Clara gave her a reassuring nod, and she decided to tell Kate the truth.

"Kate, the Doctor isn't here. I'm sorry but we're all of the help that you've got right now," Amy said.

"Where is he? Do the Daleks have him?" Kate asked with dread.

Amy took a deep breath before she started to explain what had just happened as she said, "No. He was badly wounded while getting us away from the Daleks who were doing their best to kill us. The TARDIS was going to crash, and he was about to slip into a coma at any minute so in order to save me and Clara he . . . He told me that there was some kind of weird old Time Lord technique that he had once learned about from someone called the Master where they could merge with another person and become one being. I agreed to let him do that with me so that I could use his knowledge to land the ship safely."

Kate looked at her in amazement as she said, "Is there any way that you can separate from him?"

"No, I don't know how. Only the Doctor can pull us back apart again, and he's in a healing coma right now. He's transferred all of his Time Lord abilities, physiology, knowledge, and memories over to me though. Basically he remade me into a Time Lord which I really don't like because I'm still not him even with all of his knowledge. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, Kate," Amy confessed.

"You're going to have to do the best that you can despite that, Amy, because right now you're the only hope that this planet has," Kate said.

Amy sighed looking unconvinced as Clara said, "Come on, Red. You can do this. I know you can. I'll help you every step of the way until the Doctor comes back."

"Now I really don't know if I can do this," Amy said as she tried to make a joke.

"Ha ha! Very funny, Mrs. Doctor!" Clara said as she tried to make Amy laugh.

"Yeah, I guess I deserve that title more than you now. Talk about irony. Alright, Kate. I'm going to do the best that I can to help because I have no other choice if I want to save the planet," Amy said with a reluctant look on her face.

"I miss my Chin Boy already," Clara admitted.

"So do I. I really wish that he was here right now," Amy said sadly.

As soon as Clara and Amy followed Kate out of the TARDIS, they were immediately surrounded by several Dalek patrols that Amy realized must have followed the TARDIS on the way down in order to finish them all off. The Daleks all pointed their gunsticks at the three women and the UNIT soldiers that Kate had brought with her as they anxiously looked towards the TARDIS.

When no one else emerged from it, one of the Daleks finally asked, "WHERE IS THE DOCTOR?"

Amy took her deepest breath yet as she plunged right into the biggest bluff of her life with both feet and said in her best impression of her Raggedy Man, "Don't you know? Haven't you guessed yet? You lot must be getting slow in your old age or something. Don't you even recognize me anymore?"

Clara and Kate looked at her in shock as the Dalek who had spoken earlier asked, "WHAT ARE YOU REFERRING TO? ANSWER! ANSWER!"

"Oh, you really are dim, aren't you? I mean sure I don't have my usual cool gear on or you'd probably recognize me right away I'm sure. It's still me all the same though. It's me, boys! I'm the Doctor!" Amy said with a huge cocky grin on her face.

Amy knew that they couldn't just rely on the knowledge of the Doctor. They also had to have his reputation too. They needed that because he was the one being that the Daleks absolutely feared. That and that alone might be what she needed to make a real difference here. She only hoped that she was able to pull it off.

I really hope that you know what you're doing, Amy. Clara thought to herself as she looked at her in disbelief.

**Next: Can Amy really get away with this impersonation of the Doctor or will the Daleks see right through her? Can she and Clara possibly defeat the Daleks all by themselves without the Doctor or is the battle to save the planet already over with before it's even begun.**


	2. Is It Really Just An Act?

CHAPTER 2

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

Thank you for your favorites, follows, and the review.

IS IT ALL REALLY JUST AN ACT?

Amy held her breath in nervous anticipation as the Daleks stared at her without speaking for a moment. Would they believe her? Could she truly have any chance at all of fooling the Doctor's oldest enemies who knew him better than anyone (except possibly the Master)?

"IDENTITY CONFIRMED. IT IS THE DOCTOR," One of the Daleks finally said.

Amy just barely controlled her reaction in time as she suppressed the shock and surprise that she felt and projected a smug confident attitude instead as she said, "Of course it's me. It certainly took you long enough. You lot are getting a bit slow these days aren't you? I remember a time when you could recognize the new me right away. Or is it just because I've become a girl? Is that what threw you for a loop? What's wrong with that, eh? I like being a girl. Tell me what you think of the new me and be honest with me now. Do you think I'm pretty?"

Amy then smiled the same mad grin that the Doctor always did as she pretended to actually be waiting for an answer. Like she actually cared what the Daleks thought of her!

"I wouldn't answer that if I were you," Clara joked as she finally joined into the banter now.

"YOU WILL REMAIN SILENT!" One of the Daleks shouted in what sounded like an irritated voice.

"Temper, temper! You're not going to get on my good side that way. You need to start being just a little bit nicer to me if you want us to start out on a better footing than we did in my last incarnation. By the way, you never did tell me if I was pretty or not. I'm still waiting," Amy said with a mischievous smile.

"YOU WILL STOP THESE GAMES, DOCTOR. COME WITH US PEACEFULLY OR YOUR COMPANION DIES. WE KNOW THAT YOU WON'T ALLOW ANY HARM TO COME TO YOUR FRIENDS," A Dalek said as several of them pointed their gunsticks at Clara.

Then another one put the tip of its manipulator arm on Clara's head. Amy stiffened as the Doctor's memories suddenly came flooding into her mind of seeing a Dalek use that arm to kill before by crushing a person's skull. She now feared that she had gone too far, and her friend would now pay the price for her stupidity.

"No! Wait! I'll go along without a fight. Just leave her alone," Amy said.

"SHE WILL REMAIN UNHARMED AS LONG AS YOU COOPERATE. NOW MOVE. YOU WILL FOLLOW US," A Dalek commanded.

As Amy and the others followed the Daleks, she asked them, "So where are we going? Are you going to try using a mind probe on me? You remember how successful that was before, don't you?"

Clara watched her pump the Daleks for information just like the Doctor would and was quite impressed. She really was getting into this act of hers quite easily.

A little too easily.

"WE ARE GOING TO TAKE YOU TO THE EMPEROR'S SHIP," One of the Daleks said.

"Ooh, so you've finally gotten a new emperor again, eh? I must say it's about time. I can see why no one wanted that job though after what happened to the last one. You don't have to be afraid of this one getting himself vaporized though this time because Rose isn't here. Go ahead then, boys. Take me to your leader. I always love saying that!" Amy said with a large smile on her face.

"Uh, Doctor, don't you think that you should tone it down just a bit? Considering that we're currently surrounded by a ton of these talking pepper pots, I don't think that we should be getting them any angrier than they already are right now, do you?" Clara said in an uncomfortable voice.

"Oh, relax, Oswald. They're not going to do anything to us. At least not right now anyway. They're currently under orders to bring us to the Emperor safe and sound. Isn't that right, boys?" Amy said confidently.

"THAT IS CORRECT," A Dalek answered.

"See? I know my Daleks very well, Clara," Amy said.

"How nice for you, Chin Girl. Right now I wish that I knew them a little bit less at the moment," Clara said.

Kate stared at Amy for a moment and then whispered, "I noticed that the explosions all around us have almost stopped now. All of this seems to have been a trap to bring the Doctor here. You need to be careful."

"I'm on it, Kate. I'm ready for whatever they have to throw at me," Amy whispered back.

"I certainly hope so," Kate said even as she was bothered by the fact that Amy had lost her fear of impersonating the Doctor just a little bit too quickly.

Soon Amy, Clara, Kate, and the UNIT soldiers were all led to the Emperor's ship where they finally found themselves in a large throne room filled with Daleks. The only thing missing was the Emperor.

"Suddenly I have a very bad feeling, Chin Girl," Clara whispered.

"So do I. Why do you keep calling me that anyway? I don't have a huge chin," Amy whispered back in a tone that sounded just a bit annoyed.

Clara smiled at that because at least Amy sounded like herself again instead of sounding like she was doing a very weird impersonation of the Doctor.

"Sorry, force of habit. I just feel better if I pretend that you're really him. I could call you Big Red instead. How about that?" Clara said with an evil smile.

"Let's just stick with Chin Girl," Amy said as she glared at her.

"I thought you'd feel that way," Clara said giggling.

Amy shook her head at her friend even as she said in character as the Doctor, "So where's the Emperor? I haven't got all day you know. I have places to go, people to meet, and a plate full of fish fingers and custard waiting for me back in the TARDIS."

"THE EMPEROR IS ALREADY HERE," A Dalek said.

Then the Daleks all turned to look at Amy. Amy felt both her old and her new hearts begin to suddenly start beating rapidly as she finally realized what was going on here at last.

"Yeah, I thought that it might be something like that," Amy said as she pulled the sonic screwdriver out of her pants pocket.

"What's going on?" Clara asked still not getting it.

"They want to make me into their new Emperor, Clara," Amy said.

"You mean like what happened to Oswin?" Clara asked in a horrified voice.

"I'm afraid so, yeah," Amy said.

"What are we going to do, Big Red? Please tell me that you have a plan," Clara asked as the Daleks started to close in on them.

"Yeah, of course I have a plan," Amy said as she warily eyed the Daleks that were now surrounding her on all sides.

"Care to enlighten us on exactly what it is, O Great and Wise Time Lady?" Clara said as several Daleks now surrounded her as well cutting her off from the others.

"Amy, you need to do something now!" Kate shouted as she and the soldiers were all lined up against the wall and a row of Daleks moved in front of them with their gunsticks all aimed at them.

"Clara, Kate, duck!" Amy suddenly yelled.

Then she proceeded to use the sonic to start blowing up every Dalek around her even as she used her now much more powerful leg muscles to leap out of the way of the massive explosions that quickly surrounded her. She then started to run toward Clara as fast as she could as she destroyed the Daleks surrounding her as well while pulling her to safety. Even as she did this, she ducked and dodged massive incoming Dalek fire from every Dalek in the room including the ones who were about to shoot Kate and the soldiers as they all turned their attention solely to her now.

"EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR! EXTERMINATE HER!" the Daleks all shouted in a chorus together as they realized that their plan was now coming apart at the seams.

Clara gasped in awe as Amy rapidly destroyed every Dalek around her with the sonic so quickly that it looked like they were standing still. Even while she completely tore through every Dalek that dared to get anywhere near her, she performed moves that would make an Olympic gymnast blush with envy as she continued to dodge and weave through massive Dalek blasts that would have completely destroyed anyone else. It seemed that becoming a Time Lord had given Amy almost supernatural agility and speed.

"Maybe I should start calling her Kangaroo Girl instead the way that she keeps jumping about," Clara mused to herself.

"It's incredible! I've never seen anyone move that fast. If these were the kind of warriors that were in the Time War, I can't understand how the Time Lords ever lost?" Kate said in disbelief.

Amy must have heard her because she said, "Oh, no. The Time Lords weren't anything like me. I'm a special case because I'm a unique mix of Time Lord and human, and that's made me the best of both of them. I'm like the uber Doctor!"

Clara sighed as she said, "There she goes again. She's not talking at all like Amy anymore."

"Yes, she seems to be becoming more and more like the Doctor by the moment. I'm afraid that we may be losing her," Kate said.

"Not if I can help it. I'm going to keep reminding her of exactly who she is as much as I can until the real Doctor is back," Clara said.

"I only hope that he still can come back," Kate said in an uncertain voice.

"Of course he's coming back. My Chin Boy always comes back for me. Always," Clara said confidently even as her eyes betrayed just a hint of fear to Kate.

"IT IS AS WE THOUGHT. SHE IS A COMBINATION OF AMELIA POND AND THE DOCTOR. WE MADE AN ERROR THINKING THAT WE COULD CONTROL HER EASIER THAN THE REAL DOCTOR BECAUSE OF THIS. IT IS AN ERROR THAT WE WILL NOW CORRECT," said a Dalek leader that was at the head of yet another new group of Daleks that had just entered the room.

As a massive army of Daleks lay all around her reduced to little more than smoking husks, Amy turned around with a glare of pure anger on her face to look at her latest opponents. Clara shuddered as she recognized that look. It especially looked very unnerving to her on Amy's face. It was the Oncoming Storm.

"So you knew all the time, didn't you? You knew that I wasn't the original Doctor and went along with me anyway in order to lure me into a trap. You actually thought that I would be much easier to control because I'm part human didn't you? Oh, you were so, so wrong! If you want to find out exactly how wrong, just come on over here!" Amy said in a voice filled with cold fury.

"Oh, Amy," Clara said so afraid for her because she didn't sound anything like herself at all anymore.

The humans in the room could only watch on in a mixture of admiration and fear as Amy tore every Dalek in the room apart almost effortlessly in a matter of minutes. Then she looked at them with a cocky grin on her face as she gave them all a bow.

"And that, Clara Oswald, was my plan," Amy said proudly.

"Amy, are you alright?" Clara asked even as she knew that she wasn't.

Amy walked up to her and surprised her by hugging her tightly and kissing her forehead just as the Doctor used to do. Then she smiled at her as she put a friendly arm around her.

"I'm perfect, Souffle Girl. I'm just wonderful. I've never felt so alive in all of my lives. I'm cool right now. Really cool," Amy said with a big goofy grin.

Then her face went wide with horror as a look of sudden realization came over it and she said, "No, no, no! I'm talking just like him now. I'm even thinking about fish fingers and custard like he does. He's bloody possessed me!"

She then turned to Clara and suddenly yanked her arm away from around her as she blushed in embarrassment while she said, "Clara, what I did just now was all him. That wasn't . . . I don't feel . . . I just think of you as a friend."

"It's okay. I know exactly what's going on and I'm going to keep reminding you of who you really are until you can get separated again, okay? Don't worry about a thing, Amy. It's going to be alright," Clara said in a sympathetic voice.

"That's easy for you to say. You're not the one who's becoming Mrs. Doctor . . . literally," Amy said in a scared voice.

"I'm sorry for being rude, Amy, but we don't have time for this right now. We're still right in the middle of a Dalek invasion," Kate reminded her.

Amy now smiled once more as she said, "Not anymore."

She then went to a control panel that had somehow remained untouched during her fight with the Daleks and used the sonic on it to gain access. She rapidly went through its menu and then smiled as she reached exactly what she was looking for.

"There. That ought to do it. I've fooled the computers of this ship and every other Dalek ship on Earth into thinking that they've just been recalled back to Skaro. They're all due to take off in a few minutes. I made the orders unable to be cancelled so that they can't be overridden. These ships won't stop until they go back home, and then once they're there the engines of each ship will shut down and refuse to restart. Am I clever or what? I'm the Queen of Cool!" Amy said happily.

"No, you're not! You're Amy. That's who you are. You're Amy Pond," Clara reminded her.

"Yeah, but can't I be Amy and still be cool too?" Amy asked.

"Of course you can, Red," Clara said with a sigh as Amy hugged her yet again.

This time she managed to stop herself just before she kissed Clara on the forehead again too. She looked at Clara apologetically as she silently pulled herself away from her.

"Sorry. I can't believe that I'm doing this," Amy said in a voice filled with repulsion.

"I don't mind telling you that I'm kind of insulted right now," Clara joked as she tried to make her feel better.

"Come on, Shorty. We need to get out of here before this ship leaves," Amy said with a smile as she led the others to the nearest transmat.

Once they got there, she quickly sent everyone back to the surface until it was just her and Clara there. She was just about to send Clara back too when they both heard a noise behind them.

They turned to see a young woman with dark hair staring at them with a pleading look on her face as she said, "Don't leave me here. Please take me with you."

Then she started to collapse right in front of them. Amy and Clara both raced to her side and caught her just in time before she hit the floor.

"Come on, Clara. Let's take her to the transmat. We've got to hurry. We don't have much time left," Amy said as the two of them sat her on top of the transmat.

Amy then quickly sent the mysterious woman, Clara, and herself back down on Earth in front of the TARDIS with just a minute to spare before the Dalek ships all left. As they all headed back toward Skaro, Amy and Clara watched them go with a triumphant smile on their faces.

"We did it, Chin Girl! We actually did it," Clara said in disbelief.

"What exactly do you mean by we, Shorty? I'm the one that did everything while you just stood around with your stupid jaw hanging open the entire time," Amy said with a smile on her face that said that she was just joking.

"Are you alright, Ames?" Clara asked with concern.

"So far. I feel like myself again for now. Come on. Let's go see if the TARDIS is back to normal again," Amy said.

They lifted the mysterious woman up and put her arms around their shoulders as Amy snapped her fingers and opened the TARDIS doors. Then they carried her inside with them and laid her in the Captain's Chair while Amy went to the console to check on the progress of the repairs to the ship.

She smiled as she said, "Yes! She's good as new again. Now all we have to do is get the Doctor back out of my body, and we can all return to normal. Come on, stupid Raggedy Man. Wake up already!"

"Hopefully his alarm clock will go off soon enough, Amelia. Let's just hope that he didn't hit the snooze button. Don't worry about that right now though. I'd like to know who this is that we just saved first and what she was doing on a Dalek ship," Clara said as they both finally took a close look at the woman in the chair at last.

Amy then gasped as she finally recognized her at last. She was older than she was when the Doctor had last seen her, but it was undeniably her.

"Susan," Amy said.

Clara now finally recognized her as well from the memories of her echo who had told the Doctor which TARDIS to pick so very long ago. This was Susan Foreman, the Doctor's granddaughter!

As they both stood there watching her, Susan opened her eyes and looked around her at the TARDIS with a mixture of surprise and absolute joy on her face that made Clara smile. There was a clear expression on Susan's face that even a non-telepath like Clara could read. It meant 'home'!

Susan then finally seemed to notice the two of them for the first time as she looked at them both with a smile of absolute happiness on her face. A smile that Clara quickly realized was directed entirely at her.

"Grandmother!" Susan shouted as she tried to get out of the chair and hug Clara.

She quickly fell back into the chair though and obviously decided just to lie there instead. She was too weak to do anything else at the moment but just stare at Clara with a huge smile on her face.

"I'm so happy to see you again, Grandmother! How are you still alive?" Susan asked.

"Huh? What's she talking about?" Clara said with a perplexed look on her face.

Amy then finally realized something as a set of memories that the Doctor had kept hidden even from her suddenly unlocked, and she gasped in astonishment at what they revealed. No wonder he was always so affectionate with Souffle Girl!

"Susan, this isn't your grandmother. At least not exactly anyway," Amy said.

"I don't understand. How can she not be my grandmother? She looks exactly like her," Susan said which made Clara gasp in surprise.

"Look closer at her, Susan. Try to touch her mind," Amy said.

Susan's face filled with disappointment and she began to cry as she said, "You're not her. You're human. Unless . . ."

Susan started to check Clara's pockets as Clara said, "What are you doing?"

"She doesn't have a fob watch, Arkytior. She's really human. Her name is Clara Oswald, and she's a friend of your grandfather's," Amy said.

"How do you know my real name? Who are . . .?" Susan started to ask and then she stopped in mid-sentence as she looked at Amy closely.

"Oh, Grandfather, what have you done?" Susan said.

"Tell me about it. I'm Amy Pond by the way. I'm another friend of the Doctor's. Amy and I travel with him. At least we did until he was badly hurt and merged with me to save us all. Now I can't set him free, and I'm becoming more and more like him. Can you help me?" Amy pleaded.

"I can try when I feel better. Right now I'm too weak to do anything. Sorry," Susan said.

"That's alright. I can wait. At least I hope I can," Amy said.

Clara was still looking at Amy with eyes filled with questions as she said, "What do you mean that I'm not her grandmother exactly? Why do I look like her for?"

"Clara, the Doctor kept it from me for a long time, but now I finally know the truth about you. That's why he was so obsessed with you and was trying so hard to find you again after you died on him twice, Clara. He realized as soon as he saw Governess Clara that you were the spitting image of his dead wife. He wanted to know if you were her somehow or had some kind of connection to her. Then he finally figured it all out after you jumped into his timestream at Trenzalore. That was when he finally knew once and for all exactly who you were," Amy said.

Susan looked at Clara in amazement as she said, "You jumped into my Grandfather's timestream and survived?! That explains everything then."

"Not to me. What aren't you two telling me? Come on, Red. Spit it out!" Clara demanded.

Amy and Susan looked at each other for a moment and then Amy finally said, "Clara, Susan's grandmother was one of your echoes! Part of you was the Doctor's first wife back on Gallifrey."

Clara looked at her with her jaw hanging open yet again as she tried to process this shocking new piece of information. As Susan looked at her with concern, Amy put a comforting hand on her back and smiled reassuringly at her.

"Don't worry about her, Susie. She always does that," Amy said with a grin.

**Next: Susan explains what she was doing on the Dalek ship and how she survived the Time War while Clara tries to come to terms with the shocking revelation that Amy has just revealed to her. Also Susan will tell Amy and a still numb Clara the whole story of her grandmother's life. Can Susan finally help Amy separate herself from the Doctor again at last? **


	3. Susan's Story

CHAPTER 3

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

Thank you for your favorites, follows, and reviews.

SUSAN'S STORY

"Are you alright?" Susan asked Clara after she had stood there with a blank look on her face and hadn't spoken for at least five minutes.

Susan waved her hand in front of Clara's face but received no response. Clara didn't even blink.

"I think she's gone catatonic from the shock," Susan said to Amy with concern.

"She'll be alright. She just needs somewhere to go in order to take her mind off of things. So where would you like to go on your first trip back in the TARDIS, Susan? Argolis, the Planet of the Hats, Helicon Prime, Barcelona? Name a place. Any place. Well, almost any place. You don't want to go to the Planet of the Coffee Shops do you? I really hope not. It's just so boring there! You definitely don't want to go to Midnight. Trust me on that one. I don't get along well with people on buses although Christina was nice," Amy said babbling as she started lapsing into the Doctor's personality once more without even realizing it.

"Amy, focus! You're becoming Grandfather again!" Susan said.

Amy stared blankly at her and then said, "Sorry, Susan. It's just like I lose myself, and he takes over. Where are we going by the way?"

"What?" Susan asked and then she realized that Amy had dematerialized the TARDIS and set the coordinates to some unknown destination once more while she had been acting as the Doctor.

"Did she just start the TARDIS up and send us all off somewhere? Please tell me that she didn't! She's so mad sometimes that she's liable to send us all into the middle of a black hole!" Clara said in an angry voice as she finally started talking once more.

"Yes, I didn't realize what she was doing until it was too late. It'll be alright. I'll change the coordinates. Are you alright now?" Susan said with a worried look as she moved to the console and started turning switches and pressing buttons.

"I'm not mad just possessed," Amy protested before Clara could answer her.

"From where I'm standing there's not much difference, Red! Yes, I'm feeling better now, Susan. Stop worrying about me so much and take care of yourself. You look like you're about to fall over at any minute. Did you manage to fix things? Where was she sending us anyway?" Clara asked out of curiosity.

Susan could tell that despite what she said that Clara was very upset and trying very hard to hide it so she went along with her act as she responded to her in a normal voice, "She wasn't sending us anywhere dangerous. It was the Planet of the Hats. I actually liked that place. I didn't really feel like returning though so I changed the coordinates back to your time again at a place called Coal Hill School."

Clara looked at her in surprise as she asked, "How did you know that I worked there?"

Now it was Susan's turn to be surprised as she asked, "You work there?"

"Yes, I'm an English teacher. How do you know that school?" Clara asked.

"I used to go there as a student in the 60s. That all came to an end though when Grandfather . . . accidentally took two of my teachers with us in the TARDIS. I never did know if they got home alright or not. I was going to check and see whatever happened to them," Susan said.

"Accidentally? Hah! He kidnapped them you mean. The original Doctor definitely wasn't like my Raggedy Man," Amy chimed in.

"He was suspicious of them for following me back to the TARDIS. I think that he thought that they might have been agents of the Time Lords sent to bring us back home since we did steal a TARDIS and fled Gallifrey in it after all. He soon warmed up to them though," Susan said defending her grandfather.

Clara now began to realize something as she asked, "Susan, was one of these teachers of yours a man named Ian Chesterton?"

"Yes, that's right," Susan said.

"He's the Chairman of the Board of Governors for the school now. No wonder he acted so funny at the interview when I got the job. He asked me if I had been traveling to any faraway places lately. Oh, he knew! He knew! It all makes sense now," Clara said as she slapped herself in the forehead.

"You'd better stop doing that or you'll wind up acting just like Raggedy Man. Believe me when I say that you definitely don't want that to happen to you," Amy joked.

"You would know alright. Oh, so many things make sense now. Things that I never questioned before but now I realize I should have in hindsight. Why was a book with the Doctor's real name in the TARDIS' library in the first place and how was I able to read it since it was in Gallifreyan? The TARDIS was trying to tell me who I was even then in her own weird way. It also explains why I felt such a connection to you, Susan. When I saw your picture in the Black Archive, I felt this overwhelming need to know more about you. I thought it was just because I vaguely remembered one of my echoes telling you and the Doctor which TARDIS to take, but it was more than that wasn't it? Why can't I remember you?" Clara said in an upset voice.

"You don't remember anything?" Susan asked in a clearly disappointed voice.

"No, I can't. I'm trying but I can't. I'm sorry," Clara said in tears.

Susan immediately rushed to her side as she said, "It's alright. That's not your fault. I'm surprised that you can remember anything after having yourself splintered like you were, Gr – Clara."

Clara smiled as she said, "You almost forgot that I wasn't your grandmother, didn't you? You can call me that if you want. I don't mind."

Susan shook her head as she said, "No, I wouldn't feel right doing that. I just forgot for a moment because you're so much like her. Not just because you look like her either. Your eyes are filled with warmth and kindness just like hers always were and you have a sense of humor like she did too. You're also . . . a bit demanding like her."

"Stop trying to be polite and tell the truth, Susan. She always was a bit bossy. Well, more than a bit actually. Well, when I say a bit . . . I loved her anyway despite that though," Amy said as she reverted back to the Doctor's personality.

"Yeah, thanks for that, Mrs. Doctor," Clara said in an annoyed voice.

Amy's face was filled with angry as she regained control once more and said, "Raggedy Man, when I get separated from you again, I'll kill you!"

"Yeah, that'll really make him want to leave now," Clara said.

"Shut up," Amy said.

Susan started laughing at both of them despite herself and then almost fell over it because of it. Clara caught her just before she could injure herself however.

"Susan, sit down!" Clara ordered as she made her sit back in the Captain's Chair.

"I feel fine," Susan protested.

"Sure you do. That's why laughing makes you fall over. Now you sit there and rest for a while until you've recovered your strength. Then you're going to bed and rest, got it? I'm sure the TARDIS can give you your old room back. The Doctor told me once that she stores all of the old rooms in her memory. That'll make you feel better to be back in familiar surroundings I'm sure," Clara said as she felt Susan's forehead for a fever.

Susan smiled at her as it became obvious that Clara was deeply concerned about her. She really was just like her grandmother who she knew would be giving her the exact same speech if she were there at that moment.

"Why don't you just burp her and give her a bottle already, Clara?" Amy joked as she noticed this too.

"Shut up, Red! I just feel like I should take care of her because . . . her real grandmother isn't here to do it and the Doctor's on permanent vacation apparently. I feel like it's my responsibility. It's like I owe it to her or something," Clara said with an embarrassed look on her face.

"If she were here, she'd be the first one to say that you didn't owe her a thing," Susan said.

"Can you tell me more about her? What happened to her?" Clara asked.

"While you're at it, why don't you tell us what happened to you too? How did you wind up on a Dalek ship?" Amy asked curiously

Susan nodded as she said, "I guess I should finally tell you both everything shouldn't I? It looks like we're going to be in the Vortex for a while anyway. I don't know why the TARDIS is taking so long to get us back to where we left."

"I bet I know why. It's because she wants to hear this story just as much as we do," Clara guessed.

"Possibly. She always was very concerned about all aspects of Grandfather's life," Susan said as she patted the console fondly.

"You do that too, huh?" Clara noted with a smile.

"Oh, yes. The TARDIS is like an old friend to me. It's why I gave her a specific name all of her own, TARDIS, instead of just calling her a TT Capsule. Then everyone else apparently started using it for their capsules too," Susan said.

"Everybody rips off a good thing. Get with the story, Susie," Amy said.

Susan began to tear up now and hesitated before she started as she said, "Give me a minute."

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Clara said as she put a sympathetic hand on Susan's shoulder.

"No, it's alright. It just still bothers me even now," Susan said.

Then she cleared her throat and smiled as Clara started to gently rub her back in a familial gesture of affection. She didn't think that Clara was even aware that she was doing it or that her grandmother used to do it to her to calm her down whenever she was upset about something when she was younger.

Amy smiled as she noticed this but said nothing this time. It was obvious to her whether Clara could consciously remember Susan or not that her heart did remember something about her after all.

Susan felt much better now as she finally started to speak once more and said, "Her name was Kore, and she was a member of one of the noblest Houses on Gallifrey. None of that mattered to my grandfather though. He once told me that he fell in love with her at first sight before he even knew who she was, and I believed him every time that I saw both of them together. They always had this easy familiarity with each other that I envied where she constantly insulted him even though she obviously loved him dearly while he couldn't stop hugging her and constantly kissed her on the forehead."

"That sounds oddly familiar," Amy said with an evil grin as Clara punched her in the arm.

"Shut up and let her talk, Big Red," Clara said.

"Stop calling me that," Amy said between gritted teeth.

Susan laughed as she said, "My grandmother would treat her friends exactly like you do to Amy, Clara. She always seemed to hide her true feelings just as you do. You, I mean she, never acted that way towards me though. Maybe it was because you always knew how sensitive that I was. I was always very thin-skinned as a child and was always bullied by the others at the Academy. I remember one time that you scared the life out of some of my classmates when you caught them bothering me. You told them that you would personally tell my uncle Koschei where each and every one of them lived if they didn't leave me alone. That shut them up quickly! No one wanted to get on the wrong side of the Master!"

Neither Clara or Amy had the heart to tell her that that she kept confusing Clara with Kore throughout her story.

"So what happened to her?" Clara asked.

Susan sighed as she continued, "My grandparents were together for a very long time, and they were extremely happy. Then one night all of that changed in a single moment. A mysterious stranger wearing odd clothing that I later realized came from Victorian England on Earth appeared in the middle of their home late one night just before they went to bed. He was intent on killing my grandfather for some reason, but my grandmother wouldn't let him. It was almost as if she had rehearsed that one moment her entire life as she reached for a Time Ring and grabbed the man at the exact same time with absolutely perfect timing. Both of them instantly disappeared, and my grandfather automatically started screaming her name calling for her to come back to him. He seemed to go mad as he ran to the homes of every member of the High Council that he could find and demanded that they find her. He tried and tried to find out where she had gone but he never knew. All that he knew was that she never came back. We never saw her again. I sometimes think that's one reason he travels as much as he does. He still hopes that he can find her somehow."

"You were there when it happened weren't you?" Clara realized as Susan started crying.

"Yes," Susan admitted as she began openly sobbing now.

Clara embraced her and let her cry on her shoulder as she mouthed the words 'Great Intelligence' to Amy who nodded. It was obvious now that Kore was yet another echo to fall saving the Doctor from the Great Intelligence's revenge on him.

"You don't have to talk anymore, honey. Do you want to go bed now?" Clara said after Susan finally stopped crying.

"No, I need to talk about the rest of it. I need to explain how I got on that ship," Susan said.

"Are you sure?" Clara asked as she lightly stroked Susan's hair because she could easily see that her gr- . . . no, her friend was still extremely upset.

"Yes, I have to talk about it. As you may or may not know, my grandfather left me behind on an alternate future Earth that the Daleks had invaded after I fell in love there," Susan said.

"He did what?!" Clara said.

"He thought that he was doing what was best for her, but yeah, I agree with you on this one, Shorty. You can be second in line to slap him when he comes back . . . right after me. I'm calling eternal dibs on that one," Amy said.

"No fair. I was just about to call dibs on the slapping," Clara said as she looked at Susan hoping to see a smile on her face.

"Too late, Souffle Girl. You snooze, you lose," Amy said as she too looked at Susan for some glimmer of a positive emotion.

Unfortunately neither of them saw even the slightest hint of a smile. Susan continued to look so sad that it broke Clara's heart.

Susan continued her story even as Clara put her arm around her and drew her close to her so that her head was lying on her shoulder. Amy smiled as she saw Clara instantly bonding with Susan even though she was basically a complete stranger to her. Something told her that the best parts of Susan's grandmother were definitely alive and well inside of Clara.

Susan didn't seem to be bothered by Clara's display of affection at all as she said, "I was happy on that Earth for the rest of my husband David's life there, and I probably would have happily stayed there with our children and their children for the rest of their lives too. That was never going to happen though unfortunately. Not once Rassilon used the Time Scoop to grab me away from there and forcibly drafted me into the Time War against my will. Not long after that, the Daleks captured me, and I spent the rest of the war being experimented on in one of their ships. They were trying to see if they could turn a Time Lord into a Dalek. Luckily none of their attempts to convert me ever worked. That didn't mean that they didn't hurt though."

Susan shivered at the memory of who knew how many painful and horrendous experiments as Clara hugged her tightly and said in an emotional voice, "I'm so sorry."

Susan nodded as she said, "I almost wanted to be destroyed when Grandfather used the Moment, but just before the ship that I was on could be hit by its effects we followed the Cult of Skaro into the Void. That was when we were cut off from them and wandered for what seemed like an eternity unable to find any other Daleks to get in contact with. Recently we were found by the Parliament of the Daleks, and they were going to try to use a technique that they had perfected on someone named Oswin Oswald on me. Then she went mad and destroyed the Dalek Asylum. After that they were too afraid to use that conversion technique on anyone else. It wasn't too long after that that you finally found me."

"Oswin didn't go mad. She just wanted to stay human. They couldn't convert her mentally because she refused to let them. She . . . I saved you, Susan. All of that pain that she went through was worth it if it spared you from any of it," Clara said.

"That was you too?" Susan asked in surprise.

"Apparently my other selves got around a lot," Clara said grinning.

"Was there anything that your echoes didn't do?" Amy asked with a smirk.

"Well, none of me have knocked you out cold just yet, but that could still change," Clara said with a fake frown as she pretended to be angry with Amy.

"Just go ahead and try it, Shorty!" Amy dared her.

Susan finally started laughing once again, and both women gave each other looks of triumph while she wasn't watching them.

"I think I should try to separate you from Grandfather now while you're still yourself for the moment, Amy. It will be much harder to do if you start acting like him again," Susan said.

"You're not able to do anything right now, Susan. You're still too weak," Clara said.

"Stop babying her, Clara. She's older than you are. She looks better to me," Amy said.

"You just want the Doctor to leave your body as quickly as possible," Clara said.

"You bet I do. You're not the one who's suddenly become the Doctor and Mrs. Hyde, are you?" Amy said.

Clara suddenly became serious as she said, "Why didn't he pick me?"

"What?" Amy asked.

"You heard me. Why didn't he merge with me?" Clara asked.

"Your mind already has too many memories as it is, Clara, from all of your echoes. He was afraid that he might just drive you mad if he added his to all of them. Besides . . . he couldn't bear to do that to you just because you look so much like Kore. That's why I told him to just use me so he wouldn't feel guilty about it," Amy said.

"Thank you. You know you're not so bad after all, Big Red," Clara said as she smiled at her.

"Yeah, well don't spread that around, Shorty. I have a reputation to uphold after all," Amy said.

"Amy, are you ready?" Susan asked as she rose to her feet.

"Are _you_ ready?" Clara asked Susan.

"I'll be fine," Susan said.

"You'd better be," Clara said.

Susan placed her hands on both sides of Amy's face and then closed her eyes. After several long moments of silence, Amy began to start glowing once more just as she had before. Clara had to shield her eyes from the glow as it became blinding.

Then just as quickly as they had been merged together, Amy and the Doctor were standing next to each other and were apart again once more.

Clara could see to her relief that the Doctor was in perfect shape again and had fully healed. Susan, however, was obviously wiped out by what she had just done, and Clara quickly caught her before she fell.

"Don't worry about her, Clara. She just needs to rest a while, and she'll be fine. It's so good to see you again, Susan. You'll have to tell me all about where you were when you're feeling better," the Doctor said as he hugged Susan tightly.

Clara looked at him in disbelief as she realized that he didn't know anything about what had happened while he was away including the fact that she finally knew who she was to him now.

"It's good to see you too, Grandfather. I wasn't sure that I ever would after you merged with poor Amy," Susan said.

"Yes, well I knew it was risky, but it was the only way that I could ensure that all of us would survive. Besides, I could think of worse fates than to be trapped as a ginger," the Doctor said with a grin.

It was a grin that quickly left his face after Amy slapped it!

"Ow! What was that about?!" the Doctor protested.

"What do you think, Raggedy Man? You tried to take me over," Amy said.

"I didn't do it on purpose, Amy. Sometimes those kinds of mergers can have bad side effects like that," the Doctor said.

"Thanks for letting me know about that ahead of time," Amy said.

"You're welcome," the Doctor said obviously not getting her attempt at sarcasm.

As Amy gave him a murderous look once more, Clara quickly stepped in-between them as she said, "Well, you certainly got plenty of rest, didn't you, Mr. Chin? Did you have time to think about anything in particular while you were doing that?"

The Doctor looked at her blankly as she said, "I mean I'm sure that you had a lot of time to think about what you were going to say to someone about something that you had been keeping from them for a long time, didn't you?"

The Doctor's eyebrows went up as he said, "Oh! Yes, of course! I know exactly what you mean!"

"I thought you might," Clara said.

The Doctor suddenly turned to Amy as he said, "I had a lot of time to think about it, and I think that I might just have a plan to save Rory."

"What?" Amy said in surprise.

"Doctor! I wasn't talking about that!" Clara said furious.

"Who cares? Let him talk," Amy said.

"Doctor, were you ever planning on telling me about the fact that one of my echoes was your wife?" Clara demanded.

The Doctor froze in his tracks and looked at her in horror as Amy said, "Who cares about that right now? You two can always fight later. What about Rory?"

Susan meanwhile quietly found her old room which was indeed still there and quickly went to sleep. If Clara was anything like her grandmother in the yelling department, then she definitely would stay in bed for a couple of hours until it all blew over.

On second thought, maybe she should make that a couple of days.

**Next: The Doctor and Clara talk about Kore at last. Meanwhile Amy is about to explode as she waits to hear more about the Doctor's plan to save Rory. Will he ever get to tell her what it is? Plus Susan finally makes it to Coal Hill School and is reunited with Ian again.**


	4. An Unearthly Reunion

CHAPTER 4

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

Thank you for your favorites, follows, and reviews.

AN UNEARTHLY REUNION

Clara stood her ground and continued to stare down the Doctor as he refused to look at her. He went to the console instead and began to pretend to be pushing buttons and turning knobs.

"Come on, Doctor. We need to talk about this. I just found out that you married a person who was a part of me. I'm practically Susan's grandmother. You can't just ignore that and act like it's no big deal," Clara said in an angry voice.

The Doctor remained silent and continued to pretend to be working on the console. Clara silently fumed nearby and refused to just let things go.

Amy noticed that he was shaking and immediately became protective towards him. She liked Clara and considered her a close friend, but if she had to pick between her and her best friend then the Doctor would win every time.

She put a comforting arm around him as she said, "It's okay. You don't have to say anything."

"Oh, yes he does," Clara said.

"Leave him alone," Amy said in a warning tone.

"Look, I'm not trying to make him upset, Amelia. It's just that I'm upset too. I need to know why he didn't tell me," Clara said.

"I imagine it's not something that he felt comfortable bringing up. 'By the way, Clara, I found out that my dead wife was a part of you.' Yeah, that wouldn't be awkward at all," Amy said.

"She's not dead," the Doctor said in an emotional voice.

"She's been missing for centuries is what Susan said," Amy responded.

"Missing doesn't mean dead. There's a difference, Pond. Don't talk about her that way, and stop talking about me like I'm not here," the Doctor said in a voice filled with cold fury.

"Hey, I'm on your side," Amy said in a hurt voice.

The Doctor immediately felt sorry and hugged Amy apologetically as he said, "I'm sorry, Amy. I just don't like to talk about her. I . . . can't talk about her."

Clara knew that those last comments were more meant for her than Amy.

"Look, I didn't mean to upset you. I just . . . This is important. How do I know that you didn't just bring me along to travel with you because you miss her? What if you really don't care anything about me as a person at all?" Clara said.

How do I know that you really love me for who I am and not just because I look like her? That was the unspoken question that now hung in the air between them.

The Doctor could see the worry on her face and for once he knew exactly what was bothering her. He put his arms around her and then drew her close to him. To both Clara and Amy's surprise, he then proceeded to give Clara a long passionate kiss.

Amy smiled and looked away to give them some privacy. She was so happy for both of them. She thought that it would take the Doctor forever to admit how he felt about her.

This was going to be really problematic if River ever came back for good though. It's not like Melody would have never expected the Doctor to move on, but it would still hurt her to see him with someone else. She idly wondered if they would still be considered married since Melody technically did die. She still felt like she was married to Rory however even though he had been gone for a long time.

It would definitely be a thorny issue if she ever did return, and Amy was very hopeful that she just might after the Doctor's remark about Rory. She still wanted to know just what he had in mind, but she knew that he probably wouldn't be getting to that any time soon.

She was very torn about that too. She needed to know and she was dying with impatience to find out more the whole time that the Doctor and Clara kissed.

After what seemed to be ages, the Doctor finally pulled away from Clara and said with absolute love in his eyes, "I love you, Clara. Not just because you're like her but because of how special and wonderful that you are all by yourself. You may look identical but I love you both in different ways. She was so much like you and yet not like you so it's not because you're like her because in some ways you're nothing like her. I'm not sure if this is coming out right or not."

He looked to her for a response with a fearful expression on his face and she couldn't help but smile at him as she said, "I understand what you're saying, Doctor, and I love you for it. I just didn't want to be loved because of who I reminded you of instead of for who I am. I was afraid of that from the moment you turned up looking for the governess version of me."

"You were already in love with me then?" the Doctor asked with a smile.

Clara blushed as she said, "No, I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that I didn't want to start a friendship based on what you felt for the other me."

The Doctor nodded even as he said, "You never said it back."

"What?" Clara asked confused.

"I just told you that I loved you but you didn't say it back," the Doctor said looking worried.

"Oh. Of course I do. I didn't mean to scare you. I love you too," Clara said.

"You know she does, Raggedy Man. Now stop playing games and let's get back to Rory," Amy finally said impatiently.

"Well, someone's not much of a romantic are they?" Clara said with a frown.

"I'm sorry for being such a buzz kill but I really would like to get my husband back pronto if you don't mind," Amy said.

The Doctor gave her a sad look as he said, "Amy, I didn't mean that I could bring him back completely. I just meant that I had a plan to put him in the Library like River."

Amy didn't seem to be surprised by this at all though as she said, "That's what I thought that you meant but having Rory around in any way is still better than nothing. It also means that there's hope that you could give him a body someday. I still don't see why you couldn't give him and Melody Flesh bodies like the one that I have."

"The Flesh needs something to copy in order to create a body, and they don't have anything of their original bodies left. In your case, we still had your original Flesh body that the TARDIS was able to reconstruct," the Doctor said.

Amy nodded as she said, "Alright, I get that but couldn't you give him a robot body or an Auton one? That worked before."

"Auton technology is notoriously difficult to control, Amy. We'd probably wind up with something that was more Auton than Rory. An android though? Now that might be a very cool idea. It might just work. I'll look into it. I might know a bloke who knows a bloke that could help us in that area. Of course my plan to save Rory's consciousness would still have to work first though," the Doctor said.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's put it into action," Amy said impatiently.

"Alright but I can't guarantee that this will work," the Doctor said as he called someone on the TARDIS' phone.

As the Doctor talked to whoever it was in private, Amy said to Clara, "Sorry if I ruined your moment, Clara. It was just killing me not to know what he had planned. He can't just drop a bomb like that on me and not follow up on it."

"I understand, Red. You do have a terrible sense of timing though. I think he was beginning to open up to me about Kore," Clara said.

"Don't worry. I'm sure that he'll tell you more about her sooner or later. As pushy as you are, I'm sure that you'll drag it all out of him in no time," Amy said with an evil grin.

"I am not pushy," Clara protested.

"You so are, Shorty. It's nothing to be ashamed of. I've been accused of being a bit demanding myself from time to time. Of course that usually stopped as soon as I gave the Doctor a piece of my mind. Rory never complained about it at all though as far as I know so I think Mr. Grouchy was just overreacting," Amy said.

"I imagine he was probably too afraid to say anything," Clara said with a chuckle.

"Very funny, Short Stuff. You should go on tour," Amy said with a frown.

The TARDIS finally picked that moment to land and since the Doctor was still on the phone Clara decided to take Amy on a tour of Coal Hill School. She just hoped that no one asked too many questions about what she was doing there on her day off.

At least she hoped that they had landed here on her day off. She really would create a fuss if another version of her was teaching class there at the same time as she was walking around in the hallways.

"Clara, what are you doing here? I thought that you had taken a day off to see your doctor," The secretary in the front office said as she went inside.

Amy laughed at that as she said, "She saw her Doctor alright."

"I did and I got a clean bill of health," Clara said.

"She certainly did and he did a very thorough examination of her throat and mouth. You can believe me on that," Amy said with an evil smile.

"Oh, did you have something wrong with your throat?" The secretary asked with a suspicious smile.

"Yeah, it was bothering me so I went to have it checked out," Clara said thinking quickly.

Amy started to make another comment but a death glare from Clara quickly shut her up. She couldn't stop smiling though even as she did her best to suppress her laughter.

The secretary ignored Amy as she said to Clara with a grin, "So you decided to just come here on the rest of your day off? Why? I'd enjoy myself if I was you."

"Oh, I will. I just decided to bring my friend here to see where I work first plus I was kind of hoping to see Mr. Chesterton. Wasn't he supposed to be here today for a special meeting? I would really like to ask him about something," Clara said.

"He is here for a meeting of the board. He should be getting out of it at any minute now. You can wait outside if you want but I don't know if he'll have time to see you or not. He's pretty busy today," The secretary said.

"I'm sure he'll see me once I get to ask him about something. I'll just wait. Thanks," Clara said as she started to leave.

"I'm glad you're feeling better, Clara. So was this 'doctor' that you saw handsome?" The secretary asked with an evil smile.

"It wasn't like that," Clara said in frustration.

"Of course not. Don't worry. I can keep a secret," The secretary said with a wink.

As soon as Clara and Amy got out of earshot of the office, Clara said, "Thanks a lot, Red. Now she'll have that spread all over the school by tomorrow."

"So what? You worry too much, Shorty. I've never worried about what anyone thought of me," Amy said.

"Yeah, that's pretty obvious," Clara said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Amy asked.

"Nothing, Big Red. Absolutely nothing," Clara said with a triumphant smile.

"You should be very glad that I like you so much or I'd be giving you a fat lip right now, Oswald," Amy said with a snarl that quickly turned into a smile.

Neither woman could stay mad at the other for long. They both cared about each other too much.

It was at that moment that Ian Chesterton appeared. He had obviously just gotten out of his meeting and was now walking straight towards Clara and Amy with a tired look on his face.

Clara hated to bother the old man after what she knew much have been a long day for him, but she had to do this for Susan.

Clara stepped forward and said, "Mr. Chesterton?"

"Yes, Miss Oswald?" Ian asked with a smile on his face.

It was obvious to Amy that Ian liked Clara from the way that he looked at her. He beamed at her like a proud grandfather. She couldn't wait to see his reaction when he found out about Susan.

"You haven't been entirely honest with me have you? You didn't just hire me because of my wonderful teaching skills did you?" Clara asked in a low voice.

"I'm not sure what you mean," Ian said even though they all knew that he did.

"I mean a certain Doctor that we both know . . . and his granddaughter," Clara said with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

"Susan?" Ian asked in disbelief as he suddenly dropped his pretense of innocence completely.

"Yeah, that's her. She's been asking about you. Would you like to see her?" Clara asked.

"Of course I would. Where is the TARDIS?" Ian asked.

"Just outside. Follow us," Clara said with an eager smile on her face.

"I'm sorry for not saying anything about the Doctor before, but it just seemed as if that part of my life was over and that it should stay that way," Ian apologized as he slowly walked behind the two women.

"I'm Amy Pond by the way. I travel with the Doctor too," Amy said as she turned to smile at Ian.

Ian shook her hand but looked at her oddly as he asked, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

Amy looked at him for a moment as she searched her memory and said, "I'm not sure. You do look familiar, but I can't quite place your face. I guess it'll come to me sooner or later though."

Ian laughed as he said, "You're very young to be having memory problems already."

"I'm a lot older than I look, Mr. Chesterton. Don't let my incredible beauty fool you," Amy said with a grin.

"Or her incredible humility either," Clara teased.

"Shut up, Souffle Girl," Amy said.

Ian suddenly stopped walking as he said in surprise, "Amelia Williams? Is that you?"

"That's right. I know it's hard to believe but it's really me. I still don't remember you I'm afraid. Sorry," Amy said.

"You're so young though plus you're supposed to be dead! Of course if you suddenly became this young again then I suppose you would have to fake your own death wouldn't you? I still can't get over it. I know that you were at least fifty when we first met at that writers' conference in New York back in the 60's. I was there with my wife Barbara to see you because we were huge fans of Summer Falls. We always thought that it was much more than a coincidence that the story of that book was so similar to the kind of adventures that the Doctor would have and one of the characters in it even reminded us of him. Now I can see why. How did you regain your youth, Amelia? Did something happen to you on some planet somewhere?" Ian asked in amazement.

"It's a long story that I'll have to tell you sometime, Ian. I do remember you now. Ian and Barbara used to be two of my biggest fans, Clara. They used to come and see me all the time whenever I traveled to London to promote my books. I always used to think that they knew the Doctor because of the way that they acted when we talked about Summer Falls but none of us was ever willing to come out and admit the truth. I guess I was right after all though. I can't believe that I forgot that. Then again it was a long time ago. How is Barbara these days?" Amy asked with a grin.

"She's back home. She's retired now and doesn't get out much. Her health isn't what it used to be so she doesn't like to travel. Unfortunately we can't all suddenly regain our youth again like you and the Doctor," Ian said with a chuckle.

"Thank you so very much for making me feel guilty just for existing, Ian," Amy said with a grimace that caused Ian to laugh even louder.

Clara looked at Amy and Ian with more than a bit of disbelief. She knew of course that Amy was actually older than Ian, but it was very easy to forget that because she was still so young in spirit. She could only hope that she was half as youthful and full of vitality as Amy was when she was older.

After a few minutes of walking back towards the TARDIS in which Ian and Amy continued to talk about their shared past with one another while Clara eagerly listened, the three of them finally reached the time ship at last. Ian looked at it with a huge smile of anticipation on his face and more than a bit of nervousness as he momentarily hesitated before its entrance.

In the very next moment, Susan came out of the doors saying, "Clara, Amy, where are . . .?"

She suddenly stopped short as she stared at Ian in surprise. Then she smiled from ear to ear and embraced him tightly.

"Hello, Ian! I'm so glad to see you again. How are you?" Susan asked in a joyful voice.

"I'm doing just fine now that I can see you again. I always used to wonder how you were doing back on that other Earth. Barbara and I were always half afraid that the Daleks might return there someday," Ian admitted.

"No, they never returned. Not there anyway," Susan said in a voice that suddenly went from extreme joy to instant sadness.

"Are you alright, Susan?" Ian asked as he noticed this.

"I'm fine. So tell me what you and Barbara have been up to since I last saw you. I know that you got married. I'm almost certain of it," Susan said.

"Of course we did. I think that was in the cards for us as soon as we were . . . brought along on the TARDIS with you and your grandfather. Being together so much and surviving through one dangerous situation after another the way that we did made it almost inevitable that we would bond and fall in love I think. Not that I've ever being sorry about that," Ian said with a fond smile.

"I'm so happy for you. I knew it of course. I always knew that you two were meant for each other. Tell me more," Susan said eagerly.

As Susan and Ian started to talk about the past, Clara and Amy went inside the TARDIS to give them some privacy. They saw to their surprise that the Doctor was still on the phone.

"I can't believe it. Who is he talking to?" Amy finally asked several minutes later when the Doctor still wouldn't get off the phone.

"It looks like we're about to find out," Clara said as the Doctor picked that moment to hang up.

"It's all been set in motion, Pond. I was talking to an old friend of mine and giving him details about your life in Manhattan and what you told me about where and when that Rory died so that he could make sure and be there at the right moment," the Doctor said.

"He's another time traveler?" Amy asked curiously.

"He used to be but not lately thanks to me. He deals with aliens in this time zone these days. He promised to help you if I fixed his Vortex Manipulator. I really hope that I don't wind up regretting that decision. He likes to flirt and get himself into trouble way too much for his own good," The Doctor said.

"He sounds like your type of friend alright. No wonder you two talked so long. You probably had a lot of stories to share. Who is he and what's he going to do though, Raggedy Man?" Amy asked eagerly.

"His name is Captain Jack Harness and I reached him at a point in his own timeline just before he was about to be stranded back in the past . . . again. I didn't tell him any of the details of where or when that would happen of course, but I did get him to agree that when it did happen again that he would wait until the date that Rory died and go pay him a visit at the hospital. He's immortal so he can do that. Once he visits Rory, he'll pose as a doctor and bring with him a special device that I made that I used the TARDIS to send to him through the Vortex that he'll make sure that Rory is holding at the right moment. Then he'll activate a button on the device as soon as its job is done, and it will be sent straight to the TARDIS a few minutes from now as it homes in on its signal. Cross your fingers, Pond, and hope that this works," the Doctor said in a somewhat nervous voice.

"I'll cross everything, Doctor," Amy said anxiously.

Moments later, a small device with a green light on it that was rapidly blinking off and on suddenly appeared in the Doctor's hand and he smiled in triumph. He quickly plugged it into the console before it was too late and sighed in relief as the computer registered that its contents had been safely downloaded into the TARDIS' memory.

"Did it work, Doctor? Please tell me that it worked," Amy asked in an upset voice.

The Doctor flipped a switch and a hologram of Rory that looked amazingly lifelike suddenly flickered to life. Amy gasped and tears of joy began to stream down her face as she watched him stare at her in surprise.

The Doctor has done it! He had saved Rory's consciousness just as he died.

"Amy? I was dead though. Is this Heaven? I definitely like it so far if it is. Will someone please explain to me what's going on?" Rory asked in disbelief.

"Shut up, Stupid Face. Just shut up and let me look at you. I've missed you so much," Amy said as she began to smile and laugh even as tears continued to stream down her face.

"Amy, are you alright?" Rory asked in concern.

"I'm wonderful," Amy said in a voice that clearly said that she hadn't been this happy in a very long time.

"Do you really think that you can give him and River a real body even if it's a robotic one?" Clara asked the Doctor in a low voice.

"I don't know but I'm going to try, Clara. I'd do anything for Amy . . . or you," the Doctor said.

Clara smiled at him as she said, "Tell me more about Kore then. I'd like to know about her because I honestly don't remember her, and I really wish that I did."

"You don't remember anything at all?" The Doctor asked in what seemed to be almost a hopeful voice.

"No, nothing," Clara said.

"Then she might be still alive and lost out there somewhere. You only seem to have the memories of the echoes who died after all," the Doctor said.

Clara's heart fell. It made her wonder now who that he loved more. Her or Kore? If Kore were to reappear tomorrow, would she instantly be out of luck?

She immediately felt guilty for even thinking such things. Kore was his wife after all, and she should be happy for him if he ever got her back. That didn't help her heart any though. She was beginning to wonder if there was any future to this relationship or was it doomed before it even started?

As the Doctor noticed this from the look on her face, he was instantly filled with guilt as he realized what he had done to her. He knew now what he had to do. He had to let Kore go. Clara was his future now.

"I'm sorry, Clara. I didn't mean to upset you. I never should have admitted how I felt about you. I just couldn't keep it in any longer. I - I doubt that I'll ever see Kore again anyway," the Doctor said in a voice filled with pain.

Finally admitting that painful truth to himself for the first time in his life had just ripped him apart inside, but he had forced himself to do it in order to make Clara feel better. He almost smiled at that. He had meant what he said. He really would do anything for her.

Even give up his last bit of hope for Kore's return.

Clara could see this in his eyes too. He knew that she could by her expression and in what she said next.

"I love you so much, Doctor, and now I know exactly how much that you love me," Clara said as she kissed him.

In that moment, the Doctor finally moved on.

**Next: The Doctor visits someone who he hopes may be able to make a robotic body for Rory and possibly even River. Will this actually work however or is it ultimately doomed to failure? **


	5. A New Body Or A New Problem?

CHAPTER 5

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

Thank you for your favorites, follows, and reviews.

A NEW BODY OR A NEW PROBLEM?

"Doctor, you never did tell me where we were going to get new bodies for Rory and River," Amy said as the Doctor slowly moved across the console while they flew through the Vortex.

"I didn't? Oh, sorry. It must have slipped my mind," the Doctor said absentmindedly as he continued to adjust the controls.

"Sure it did. What don't you want to tell us?" Clara asked.

"Maybe it really did slip his mind, Gr – Clara. He always was very forgetful," Susan said.

"I wouldn't fall for his absent-minded professor act if I were you, Susan. He knows exactly what he's doing, and I'm not about to let him get away with it," Clara said with a smile as she playfully tousled Susan's hair.

"You never did," Susan said in a low voice as she smiled to herself.

Clara pretended not to hear her. If she wanted to think of her as Kore, that was alright with her. She knew what it was like to constantly miss someone that you loved very much after all.

She could imagine how she would react if someone who looked just like her mother suddenly turned up in her life.

"Well, Doctor? Out with it," Amy said even as she smiled at Clara who was putting her arm around Susan.

The Doctor smiled at this as well as he answered, "I wanted to visit the man that I had in mind to help us in secret first while you were asleep tonight. That way if it didn't work out then you didn't have to know about it, and I could just think of another idea. I just didn't want you to get your hopes up for nothing."

Amy smiled as she said, "That's sweet but I don't like being kept in the dark, Doctor. Don't do it anymore. I can take a few disappointments you know. I'm not made out of glass."

"I asked him not to tell you, Amy," Rory said as his holographic image suddenly popped up next to her.

Amy nodded with a sly grin as she said, "I thought so. That sounded like you. Stop worrying about me, Mr. Pond. Now that you're here, I'm better than I've been in years. Even if whatever it is doesn't work out, it won't bother me. I promise. I didn't suddenly go soft all of those years without you. In fact, I probably grew harder because I had to in order to keep going."

"I'm sorry," Rory said.

"Why? It's not like you wanted to die," Amy said.

"I'm still sorry. I tried to hang on as long as I could. I never wanted you to be alone," Rory said sadly.

"Everything worked out okay in the end though and that's all that matters to me now. I'm alright, Rory. I really am," Amy reassured him.

Rory tried to touch her face and then groaned as his hand went through her instead.

"I keep forgetting," Rory said in frustration.

"So do I sometimes. I actually expected to feel your hand for a minute there," Amy admitted in a sad voice.

The Doctor looked away from them in frustration while Clara put her remaining arm around him and said, "You'll find a way. You always do. Just don't beat yourself up over it until you do."

Then she pulled him close to her and kissed him while Susan smiled. As far as she was concerned, even if Clara wasn't her grandmother she ought to be. She had never seen anyone else but her put that kind of smile on her grandfather's face.

The Doctor seemed to come to a decision now and said, "Amy, I'm going to go ahead and take us to the man that I had in mind to help us right now. It's an old friend of yours, Professor Edwin Bracewell."

Amy smiled at him enthusiastically as she said, "It'll be so great to see him again. What time are you going to? If you go too early, he won't have found Dorabella again yet. Do you think Winston will be there too? I haven't seen him in ages. Did I ever tell you that when I first became a best-selling writer that I found both of them when I came over to London on tour and stayed in touch with them for years afterward? They were both so shocked to see me without you at first. I stayed good friends with Winston until he died. I stayed in contact with Edwin until . . . well, until I died. I wonder whatever happened to him?"

"He's probably still running around somewhere hundreds of years after you died since he's an android. So he found Dorabella? Good for him!" the Doctor said happily.

"An android? Can someone please fill me and Susie in on just who we're talking about here or is this a members only conversation just for you two only?" Clara said in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Now you know how I felt sometimes. They would do this to me a lot. Sometimes they would just start talking about things that they had done before I started traveling with them, and they would never bother to explain any of it to me. I'm glad that it's not just me that they do it to anymore," Rory said.

"Oh, zip it, Stupid Face. It's not my fault if you can't keep up," Amy said as she smiled at him.

"Sorry, Clara, Susan. I forgot that you weren't there with us. Edwin Bracewell was an android created by the Daleks to help them infiltrate Winston Churchill's inner circle. When he found out what he was though, he turned on them and stayed with Winston even after the Daleks left him there. Well, they didn't just leave him there. They tried to blow him up and take the whole planet with him, but luckily Amy stopped them by getting him to focus on the memories that they had given him in order to get him to believe that he was really human. The ones about Dorabella, a woman he fancied, helped the most. He owes Amy his life so I think he'll be more than willing to help us. If he can that is. Being a creation of the Daleks he may have access to some of their information on how to create androids and could help us make one for Rory. Preferably one that doesn't blow up," the Doctor said.

"I always prefer a body that doesn't explode myself," Rory said smiling.

"Was that a joke? Be careful. Don't strain yourself," Amy teased him.

"So you're not sure if this Bracewell knows how to help us or not. That's why you didn't tell us. I get it now. Well, hopefully he's a lot smarter than you think, Chin Boy," Clara said hopefully.

"We're about to find out," the Doctor said as the TARDIS materialized.

Amy quickly looked at the date and smiled as she said, "Oh, good. He found Dora already by this time. He's much easier to deal with after that. He's always smiling all the time and happy."

She walked outside to find that the TARDIS had materialized inside of Bracewell's laboratory. He was standing there talking with Winston Churchill about of all things one of Vincent's paintings. She smiled as she immediately recognized exactly which one.

"Doctor, why are they holding a painting of the TARDIS exploding? Wait a minute! Is that a Van Gogh painting?" Clara said in disbelief.

"Good eye, Clara. Yeah, Vincent painted that for me to warn me about the TARDIS blowing up. Now that it did any good in the long run. Luckily I was able to fix all of that with a little help from Amy," the Doctor said.

"So I take it, Doctor, that you already know all about this painting then?" Churchill asked.

"I do now but the past me doesn't yet so you just need to go ahead and do whatever you were originally going to do with it so that it reaches me. Otherwise I won't be here having this conversation with you right now. There's also a very good chance we will have never existed as well," the Doctor said.

Churchill shook his head and smiled as he said, "I don't even pretend to understand any of that, Doctor, but I'll do as you ask. I trust that you know what you're doing."

"Of course I do. I always know what I'm doing," the Doctor said proudly.

Amy, Clara, and Susan all looked at him incredulously as he said, "Shut up."

"What can we do for you, Doctor? The Daleks aren't coming back are they?" Bracewell asked in a slightly frightened voice.

"Oh, no, no. It's nothing like that. I came to see if you had any of the Daleks' information on androids in your memory banks. Specifically on how to create one," the Doctor said.

"I do but I don't have the necessary materials or technology that I would need to make one in this time and place. You need me to make an android for you?" Bracewell asked.

"Yes, but not just any androids. I need you to make an android that will be as much like a real man and woman as possible. It's for Amy. Her husband and daughter died, but I managed to save their consciousness. I need new bodies for both of them to transfer that consciousness to so that they can have a somewhat normal life again. Can you do that for me?" the Doctor asked in a hopeful voice.

"I believe so, yes. If you provide me with the right materials and equipment, then I can make an android that will seem so real that no one will be able to tell the difference between it and a real human being without a thorough examination. I'm not sure about transferring a stored consciousness into it successfully though. The mind may become fragmented if it even survives the process at all. The Daleks had to try several times before they successfully copied my consciousness into this body and even then I don't have all of my memories. I'm missing bits and pieces of my life. Thankfully Dorabella has filled in many of them. I found her again not too long ago. Her husband died in the war a few months ago and . . . she doesn't mind what I really am. She really is remarkable," Bracewell said with a huge smile on his face.

"Yes, I can see that. I'll have to make sure and back-up Rory's mind in the TARDIS' computer so that we don't lose him if things go wrong. Thanks for warning me, Professor. Now how soon can you come with me and begin?" The Doctor asked.

"Come where?" Bracewell asked.

"We're going to the 51st century, where you'll have all the technology that you need to remake Rory's body. That's his name by the way. Rory Williams. His mind is in the TARDIS' computer right now. Say hello, Rory," the Doctor said.

Rory's holographic form was instantly projected out of the TARDIS as he said, "Uh, hello. It's nice to meet you especially you, Mr. Prime Minister."

"It's nice to meet you as well. I assume that this is some sort of illusion of a true form since you said that he had no body, Doctor," Churchill said as he looked at Rory in fascination.

"You're absolutely right, Winnie. He's not really here at all. This is a . . . Well, I guess illusion is as close as you'll get to understanding what he is. I'm sure that the word hologram won't have any meaning to you," the Doctor said.

"Oh, just tell him that he's an image made out of light that looks real but isn't. It's not that hard, Raggedy Man," Amy said in exasperation.

"I'll just stick with illusion and leave it at that, Amy. If you can help her, Professor, then you should go right away. I'm sure that the Doctor will bring you back in a reasonable amount of time. Won't you, Doctor? I can't do without the Professor for years after all. He's far too valuable to the war effort," Churchill said.

"Obviously you've been talking to Amy. Of course, I'll bring him back quickly. He'll be back five minutes after he left. I promise," the Doctor said.

Then the Doctor turned around and muttered to himself, "Wait twelve years to come back to get someone, and you never hear the end of it."

"It was actually fourteen. You didn't really come back for another two years after that," Amy reminded him.

The Doctor glared at her but said nothing. He knew better than to poke at that particular hornet's nest.

As Amy smiled in triumph, she said, "Come on, Edwin, into the TARDIS with you. I'll make sure that he gets you back on time so that you won't miss any time with Dora. I know how important that is to you."

Bracewell looked at her oddly as he said, "You called me Edwin."

"Yes, and only the other Amelia, the one in New York, calls you that, right? It's a long story but I am the Amelia from New York. Don't ask how I found him again. It's just easier that you go along with it and never mention this to the other me again when you talk to her," Amy said.

"So you're a future version of her then," Bracewell said.

"You clever boy! You got it on the first try," Clara said with approval.

As everyone but Churchill entered the TARDIS, the Doctor immediately began to input coordinates, and soon the ancient ship dematerialized and began to head straight toward the 51st century as fast as the Doctor could make her go. He smiled as he thought of where they were going. He had a very specific destination in mind.

As soon as the TARDIS materialized, the Doctor ran out of the doors like an excited child and said, "Welcome to the Library."

"So this is where River is?" Rory asked.

"Yes, she's like you now except she's not a hologram. She's a data ghost," the Doctor said.

"Yeah, big difference," Amy said rolling her eyes.

"Actually there is a lot of difference, Pond. A data . . ." the Doctor said.

"Shut up, Raggedy Man, and just get started already," Amy said.

"Amy, he is trying to help you. You don't have to be so mean," Clara said.

"Have you met Amy?" Rory asked.

"Watch it. Just because I can't hit you anymore doesn't mean that I can't still find a way to cause you pain, Mr. Pond. As for you, Shorty, did you really want to hear a long detailed comparison about the differences between a data ghost and a hologram?" Amy asked.

"Okay, so you were right. Couldn't you tell him to shut up a little more nicely though?" Clara asked with a grin.

"I could but I won't," Amy said returning her smile.

"It's all right, Clara. The Doctor doesn't take it personally. Do you, sweetie?" River said as she suddenly appeared to them.

"Now that's a hologram. If it were a data ghost, you couldn't see it unless you were linked to River," the Doctor said triumphantly as he still managed to somewhat get his point across.

"If you could do that, Melody, then why did I have to go inside the stupid computer in order to see you then?" Amy asked.

"I wanted to see you in person," River admitted with a touch of sadness in her voice.

Amy smiled and nodded as she said, "Sorry. I just don't really like being transferred into a computer program."

"Try living in one," River said.

"Hopefully that won't be a problem for you much longer. The Doctor's about to make you an android body with Edwin's help," Amy said in an encouraging voice.

"I do hope that it'll be anatomically correct. It will, won't it?" River said with a wicked grin.

The Doctor looked embarrassed as he said, "Y-Yes, of course. I'll make it as realistic as possible."

"Oh, good. Then we can pick up where we . . ." River said and then she saw the horrified look on Clara's face and stopped.

"Yeah, things are a bit complicated now," Amy said with a shrug.

"I can see that. I knew that he was going to fall for her though. Those big brown eyes were just too much for him to resist. The fact that she looks just like his dead wife didn't hurt either I'm sure," River said.

"How did you know about that?" Amy asked in surprise.

"I know everything about the Doctor, Mother. I was trained my entire life to kill him after all. You have to know your enemy before you can destroy them. Thankfully in getting to know my enemy I began to fall in love with him too," River said.

"That still didn't stop you from trying to kill me though," the Doctor reminded her.

"Can I help it if I was just a little bit confused about whether I wanted to kiss you or kill you?" River joked.

"This is the woman that you married?" Susan asked in shock.

"She's a good person at heart, Susan. She was brainwashed from birth into hating me. It wasn't her fault," the Doctor said.

"Don't lie to her, Doctor. I've never been a good person," River said with no trace of humor in her voice.

"That's not true!" Amy protested.

"Amy's right, Susan. River's definitely a much better person than I am," the Doctor said with a sad look on his face.

"I wouldn't say that, Doctor. I wouldn't say that at all. I'd say that you were both about even," Clara said with a warm smile.

"Well, now you're just being insulting," River said as her sense of humor returned.

"Grandfather, if River is your wife and she returns in an android body, isn't this going to become . . . awkward?" Susan asked as she looked at an uncomfortable looking Clara with a worried look on her face.

The Doctor smiled at her. It was clear to see where her sympathies lay.

"We'll just sort all of that out as we get to it, Susan," the Doctor said.

"So, in other words, it's just like all of his other plans then," Clara said with a nervous laugh as she tried to keep her spirits up.

"Truer words were never spoken, Short Stuff," Amy said with a grin.

"What matters is that we bring them both back to Amy if we can," Clara said to Susan.

"You really mean that, don't you?" River asked.

Clara nodded even as her inner insecurities were tearing her apart inside. If River could return, then she wanted him to be happy. It was the same way that she had felt about Kore.

"You're far too good for him, dear," River said with a warm smile.

"Don't I know it," the Doctor said.

"Shall I start now? Do you have the necessary technology here?" Bracewell interrupted as he tried to hurry all of this along as soon as possible.

"Yes, everything that you need should be here. I've been gathering it all together for you from here and there. Dorium was a big help with that. Even as a head, he still has connections," The Doctor said.

"Good, then I'll start right away then. Hopefully, it won't take too long if I have all of the right equipment on hand. I'll need a lab in which to work of course," Bracewell said.

"There's one already prepared for you on the TARDIS. I'll help you move everything that you need in there. I should have had it all already there, but I was afraid that it might become damaged what with all of the trouble that I occasionally get into. My adventures can do a little bit of damage to the TARDIS sometimes," the Doctor offered.

Both Clara and Amy looked at each other in disbelief as images of the burning TARDIS console from their recent fight with the Daleks immediately came to both of their minds.

"A little bit? Is he for real?" Amy whispered to Clara causing her to giggle and the Doctor to glare at her.

"No, that shouldn't be necessary. I'm sure that I can do it myself with my enhanced strength, Doctor. I'll get started right away then if you'll just show me where the lab is," Bracewell said.

"Doctor, the shadows are moving . . . by themselves," Clara suddenly noticed as the Doctor and Bracewell started back inside the TARDIS.

"Oh, that's just the Vashta Nerada. Don't worry about them. They won't bother us as long as we don't bother them. They know what will happen to them if they try," the Doctor said in a cold voice before he went in the TARDIS doors.

"Why do I get the feeling like I should be worried despite what he just said?" Clara asked nervously.

"Because you know him all too well that's why. Just don't let your shadow get touched by theirs and you'll be fine. You definitely don't want to know any more than that. Believe me," River said.

Clara nodded as she suddenly became silent.

"Clara, if he really wants you now . . ." River started to say and then stopped.

Clara smiled understanding her and knowing how hard that was for her to say as she said, "Thank you. I feel the same way about you."

"Like I said, you're too good for him," River said with a sad smile.

Amy and Rory looked at each other just as sadly. They hated the idea of River having her heart broken, and they didn't want Clara who they had both come to care about to be hurt either. Either way, they would lose.

At least, River would be back though. Clara was right. That was all that mattered.

The others either returned to their normal routines on the TARDIS or enjoyed some reading in the Library (carefully selected books that the Doctor made sure didn't contain any future knowledge of course) while carefully avoiding the constant presence of the Vashta Narada for the next several days. Bracewell meanwhile worked non-stop for days never having to stop to rest since he was an android himself.

Finally Bracewell emerged from the lab with a triumphant grin on his face as he said, "They're both finished. I've made them look exactly like the holograms of River and Rory. No one will be able to tell that they're not living beings without a very thorough medical examination because I've even included mechanical hearts that beat and have installed a program that will cause them to automatically breathe and blink their eyes into their hardware. They're as real as they can possibly be without being flesh and blood. Now they just need a consciousness to animate them."

"Get ready to have a new body, Rory. You'll go first. Bring his body in, Professor," the Doctor said.

"I'll go and give it an order to walk in here then. It can't move on its own after all," Bracewell said.

"Yeah? Well, it looks like they're doing a very good job of it so far," Clara said as she suddenly saw both Rory and River's future bodies standing in the doorway to the Console Room with fearsome looks on their faces.

Bracewell looked at the Doctor in shock as he said, "Doctor, I don't understand."

"I know. It wasn't your fault, Professor. It's mine. I should have known that this might happen. It must have been some leftover Dalek programming that took control of you without you even realizing it. It was some latent hidden subroutine that activated itself and caused you to build them as . . . an android version of Dalek puppets," The Doctor said with a frown.

The River and Rory androids now sprouted eyestalks from their heads and gunsticks from their hands as they both said in unison in Dalek voices, "THERE IS NOWHERE TO RUN, DOCTOR. YOU WILL ALL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"Why does everything with you have to be so complicated? You can't even get a simple thing like building my family new bodies right!" Amy said as she punched the Doctor in the arm.

**Next: How will the Doctor and company get out of this one? Will the bodies still be able to be used or was this all for nothing? **


	6. The Return of Something Lost

CHAPTER 6

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

Thank you for your favorites, follows, and reviews.

THE RETURN OF SOMETHING LOST

"Edwin, keep them distracted while I get everyone else back to the TARDIS," The Doctor said.

Bracewell quickly moved forward to confront the Daleks only to be instantly shot down by both of them firing their gunsticks at him at once. The Doctor sighed as he realized that Bracewell had been shut down for a least a few hours before he would be able to reboot himself.

He was definitely not going to be any help to anyone any time soon.

"When I say run, run," The Doctor said to the others as he pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his coat pocket.

Amy stared at him with an obstinate look on her face however and refused to move as she said, "I'm not going anywhere, Raggedy Man. We didn't just go through all of this trouble for nothing. I am not going to let those stupid Daleks stop us now when we're so close. Somehow in some way I'm going to keep those bodies in one piece and let Rory and River have them, and I don't care what I have to do in order to do it."

"So you're going to just defeat the Dalek programming singlehandedly then, Red?" Clara asked as she gave her an incredulous look.

"They're not keeping those bodies, Shorty. They're just not," Amy said with determination.

"Amy, think first before you do anything," Rory warned.

"Just shut up and let me handle this my way!" Amy shouted as she stared the two androids down.

"Amelia, stop this and get back to the TARDIS," The Doctor said in a worried voice.

"Listen to him, Amy," Clara said as she grabbed her by the arm and tried to pull her away.

"THERE IS NO ESCAPE FOR ANY OF YOU. YOU WILL ALL BE EXTERMINATED NOW, AND THE DOCTOR WILL FINALLY FALL BEFORE THE DALEKS AT LAST. WE WILL FINALLY TRIUMPH," The two androids said in unison.

"I don't think so, you demented little Pepper Pots. You see ever since I was merged with the Doctor I'm not exactly the same person that I was anymore. I may not remember everything that I knew when I was him, but I still remember some things such as how to make a sonic screwdriver of my own," Amy said as she pulled a sonic screwdriver that looked just like the Doctor's only with a red light on top out of one of her pockets.

Rory looked at her in surprise remembering how the older Amy on Apalapucia had created a sonic probe all by herself. Apparently Amy had an innate ability to understand and duplicate sonic technology and probably other kinds of alien technology as well that had been brought out by gaining the Doctor's knowledge of it just as the other Amy's had been brought out by living her entire adult life alongside alien tech on Apalapucia.

"Amelia, how did you make that?" The Doctor asked in shock.

Amy smiled as she said, "Like I said, I remember what you know about making a sonic. I also remember how to use it."

She pointed her sonic at the two androids and they began to screech in anger as both of their bodies suddenly began to seize up and start moving stiffly.

Amy smiled maliciously as one of the two androids shouted, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO US? EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!"

"I'm using my sonic to shut your higher motor functions down, Stupid. Let's see you exterminate us when you can't even move your little finger," Amy said with a chuckle.

The Doctor looked on in disbelief as the two androids finally became frozen completely after several moments of attempting to fight it. Amy then walked up to the androids and used her sonic to cause the faces of both androids to flip open and reveal sophisticated circuitry on the inside of them.

"That's just disturbing," Rory said with a shudder.

It both amused and reassured Amy to actually see hologram Rory shudder and completely imitate Rory's original body.

"Yeah, it kind of is. I might have a hard time kissing you in this body now that I've seen this," Amy said with a frown.

Then she grinned at a worried looking Rory as she said, "I'm sure I'll get over it quickly though, Mr. Pond. Now it should be easy for Edwin to reprogram them. Maybe I could even try it myself. I think I still remember how to do that."

The Doctor pouted as he said, "I refuse to believe that you defeated them that easily on the first try, Pond. You have to have done something wrong."

"What's the matter, Mr. Chin? Jealous that she's just as good as you on her first time out?" Clara teased him.

"She is not," The Doctor said in a jealous voice as he used his own sonic to scan the androids.

He actually smiled in triumph as he said, "She shut them down but only temporarily. She forgot to shut down the override circuit."

"The what?" Amy asked in confusion.

"See? I told you that she couldn't have done it right on the first try, Clara. She shut down the higher motor functions but forgot to also shut down the override circuit that all Dalek tech uses to override being shut down by one of my sonics. They put that into all of their technology after they realized that I could do that. That's a classic amateur mistake," The Doctor said smugly.

"How was I supposed to know about that? I said that I remembered some of your knowledge but not all of it," Amy said with a frown.

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, Pond," The Doctor said smugly.

"Forget about rubbing her nose in it, Chin Boy. When does this override take place?" Clara asked.

The Doctor now looked alarmed as he said, "Oh, yes. The override. Well, it should take place just about any minute now."

"Well, stop it already!" Clara shouted in exasperation.

"Yes, of course," The Doctor said as he started to use his sonic on the androids.

"Leave it to your grandfather to be so busy bragging about how he knows all about the override circuit that he forgets to actually disable it in the first place, Susie," Clara said to Susan with a grin.

"Yes, he's always had a bit of a problem with his ego at times, Grandmother. He would have remembered it eventually though," Susan said with a smile.

Clara grinned and kissed Susan's cheek as she pretended not to notice her faux pas and said, "Yes, when they were already shooting at us, sweetie."

Susan smiled back at her not even realizing what she had just done. Clara wasn't going to ever correct her either. If Susan wanted to think of her as her grandmother, then she was completely alright with that. In fact, she already had to stop herself several times now from almost calling Susan her granddaughter. The speed at which she was bonding with her was both disturbing and comforting to her somehow at the same time.

It pleased her to know that maybe there was something of Kore inside of her after all. She had to come from somewhere, right?

"Shut up," The Doctor said to Clara in an irritated voice as he hurried to shut down the override circuit before it was too late.

"Clara, Susan, get ready for a fight. He's not going to make it in time. I can tell by that worried look on his face," Amy said.

Clara could see that she was right. She recognized that 'oops, I may have made a slight miscalculation' look of his too now.

"Susan, get back in the TARDIS!" Clara ordered as she opened the TARDIS doors with a snap of her fingers completely surprising Susan.

"How did you do that?" Susan asked.

Susan briefly wondered how that could have happened. She might be able to understand her grandfather being able to do it since he had been linked to the TARDIS for so long, but how could any human even one as exceptional as Clara be able to do something like that? It just wasn't possible.

"It's something to do with the Doctor making it recognize my unique biosignature that I don't even pretend to understand. Who cares about that now, Susie? Get inside where you'll be safe," Clara said in a worried tone.

"No," Susan protested.

"I said go," Clara demanded.

Susan suddenly erupted in anger now as she screamed, "No! I'm not leaving you out here by yourself, Grandmother. Don't you see? That's what I did last time. I ran and left you there and you died because I didn't try to help you! I promised myself if I ever got you back somehow that I would never let anything happen to you again, and I'm going to keep that promise no matter what!"

Clara could see Susan struggling not to cry and immediately embraced her as she said, "Susie, you didn't cause your grandmother's death, and it was never your responsibility to keep either her or me safe. That's not your job."

"I'm sorry, Grandmother. I'm so, so sorry," Susan said over and over again as she dissolved into tears in Clara's arms.

"It's alright, Susie. It's not your fault. It was never your fault," Clara reassured her.

The Doctor watched this in sorrow even as he continued to try to stop the androids from reactivating. He had long suspected that Susan blamed herself for what happened, but he had always hoped that he was wrong. He had never wanted her to feel that way.

He had always known who was really to blame after all, and he would never stop hating himself for it.

"Stop it, Sweetie," River said.

"Stop what?" The Doctor asked innocently.

"You know what. I may not have been there that day like Susan was, but I know that whatever happened to Kore was in no way your fault. I know you and I know that you would have done everything possible to save her. What happened to her was something that no one could have possibly prevented not even you," River said firmly.

The Doctor said nothing. He knew that she really believed that but he knew better. He knew that he could have done more. He should have done more. He should have been faster to react somehow and come up with a way to save her before it was too late. He should have been clever enough to do that no matter how short a time that he had in which to do it in.

It had all happened so fast though. It was over in a flash and both Kore and his life as he knew it were gone in an instant.

He was quickly snapped back into reality as the androids suddenly came back to life again and started firing on him. Amy had been right. He had wasted time showing off how clever that he was and had failed because of it.

He was going to make sure that no one paid the price for his stupidity though. Not this time. He was going to save everyone no matter what he had to do in order to do it.

"Look at me! I'm a target!" The Doctor shouted as he jumped in front of the androids and waved his hands and arms about like the madman that he was.

"EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR!" The androids screamed as they both opened fire on the Doctor at once.

Suddenly both androids' arms swung around toward each other at the same time, and they both fired on one another before they could stop themselves! Both androids immediately fell to the floor with a large hole in their chests and instantly ceased functioning.

"Thanks a lot, Doctor! I was trying to keep them in one piece, but you just had to go and almost get yourself killed. You practically forced me to turn them against each other, you idiot," Amy complained.

The Doctor didn't even say a word in his own defense as he hung his head in shame.

"Stop it, Amy. He feels bad enough as it is," Clara said.

"I wanted to give Rory and River bodies again," Amy said in a sad voice.

"I'm sorry, Amy. I miscalculated on how long I had before they would reactivate. The Daleks must have sped up the recovery time of the override circuit," The Doctor finally said.

Amy kissed his forehead and wrapped her arms around him as she said in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry. It's not your fault, Raggedy Man. Something like that was going to happen anyway once the Daleks gained control over them. I just didn't want to admit it."

"We'll try again, Amy. It's not a total loss anyway. I can have Edwin fix those holes and then purge the Dalek elements from their programming. It shouldn't take too much longer. Once he wakes up that is," The Doctor said as he kissed Amy's forehead in return.

"Yeah, you're absolutely right, Doctor. It won't be that much longer to wait. I can handle another day or two," Amy reassured him as she hugged him.

"Will wonders never cease, Susie? Amy is actually being nice," Clara said teasing her.

"Remind me to show you just how nice that I can really be later, Shorty," Amy said with a sinister grin.

"Don't worry, Susie. She loves me too much to really hurt me," Clara said to Susan who wasn't worried at all.

She was actually laughing at their bantering. Mostly she was laughing because Clara was safe now. Her constant guilt could go away again and wait to come back another time.

She was soon to be proven very, very wrong about that however.

A flash of light suddenly appeared from out of nowhere and lit up the entire room. Before the Doctor could even comprehend what was happening, he watched in absolute disbelief as the light faded now to reveal the most incredible sight that he had ever seen in his life.

Kore was standing in front of him locked in battle with what he now knew was one of the Great Intelligence's echoes. She looked just like she had when he last saw her centuries ago as she traded blows with the man in the Victorian outfit while she fought for her very life.

"Kore?!" The Doctor shouted in equal parts shock, hope, and disbelief.

"Theta?" Kore asked in equal shock.

Clara gasped as she watched this in horror and Susan was crying with joy even as she put her arm around Clara to try to comfort her. She would still love Clara even with her grandmother back, and she wanted her to know that. Kore was a part of Clara after all.

"I don't understand," Kore said in incomprehension as she looked at what she knew was a much older Doctor than the one that she had last seen only moments ago in her timeline.

The Great Intelligence laughed even as he knocked Kore across the room with a powerful right cross while she was momentarily distracted.

"Don't you understand? You've just missed his entire life! You've gone from his first incarnation to his last in an instant. It's my greatest victory against the Doctor: depriving him of his wife. Now I'll complete my victory at last by finally killing you right in front of him and letting him watch," The Great Intelligence boasted.

The Great Intelligence laughed as he prepared to kill Kore right then and there with a staser.

"No!" The Doctor screamed as he stepped in-between Kore and the Great Intelligence.

He was just a moment too late though as Clara stood in front of her instead and took the fatal shot meant for her. Kore looked at this woman that looked just like her in disbelief as she now lay dying at her feet.

"I – It's you. I know you. I've seen you in my dreams," Kore said.

"That's right. I'm you. The original you. Promise me something, Kore. Take care of him. Take care of him and Susan. Do that for me," Clara said in a weak voice.

"I will," Kore said as tears began to run down her face.

"No! No!" The Doctor screamed as he could see the life rapidly fading from Clara's eyes.

"At last! I've finally killed her at last! I finally have my revenge for every time that she ever defeated me and kept me from you. Clara Oswald is finally dead!" The Great Intelligence proudly boasted.

"So are you. I failed to save Kore a long time ago and now I've failed to save Clara. I won't fail again. I promise that this time I won't stop until I completely wipe you out of time and space forever!" The Doctor said as his face contorted with rage.

"No, don't let him do that. You have to stop him. He's better than that," Clara begged Kore in a fading voice.

"You don't have to worry about it, Shorty. If anyone's going to do it, it's going to be me," Amy said as she used her sonic to make the staser overload in the Intelligence's hand.

It immediately blew up taking the Intelligence along with it. He was completely incinerated as all that was left of him was one last shriek of pain and anger.

"That's for killing my sister," Amy said in tears.

The Doctor, Amy, and Susan now joined Kore to gather around the dying Clara while River and Rory watched helpless to do anything to save her.

"Theta, I'm so sorry," Kore said as she realized by his devasted look just how much Clara meant to him.

"I guess it's just as well, isn't it, Chin Boy? I mean you've got the real thing back now so what do you need me for? Don't cry over me. You just enjoy being with her again. You've finally got her back again. I'm so happy for you," Clara said in a voice that the Doctor had to strain to hear.

"No, don't go, Clara. Don't go," The Doctor pleaded.

"Good bye, Doctor. I love you," Clara said as her eyes began to close.

"Clara. Don't go. Please!" The Doctor said as he began to openly sob now.

He had finally gotten Kore back only to lose the original Clara.

As Kore watched him, she now knew what the dreams that she had been having all of her life finally meant now. She had dreamed night after night that she was a human girl named Clara who lived an ordinary life on Earth. She had never understood what that meant before but now she finally knew.

She was a part of Clara. The one who was now dying before her. She always had been somehow.

"Don't worry, Doctor. I won't let you lose her," Kore said as her body began to glow.

She knew what she had to do now. She wasn't sure what was about to happen, but she had to do it in order to save the original her. It was the only way to keep her alive.

She and Clara had to become one.

Clara and Kore now merged together to become one person just as Amy and the Doctor had. Only this time something was wrong. Something had gone horribly wrong.

"Clara? Kore?" The Doctor asked as the merge completed.

"It's just me, Theta. It's Kore. I don't feel Clara in my mind at all. I have her memories but her personality and her mind . . . are gone. She's just gone. I don't understand what happened. I must have already been too late to save her. I'm so sorry. I tried. I really tried!" Kore said in an upset voice.

The Doctor held her as she shook with emotion while Amy and Susan began openly weeping. Susan was now blaming herself for Clara's loss just as she had for Kore's while the Doctor was too numb to feel anything anymore.

Clara, his Clara, was gone!

**Next: What happens next? How will the others react to Clara's loss? How will Kore react to being with a man who has gone his whole life without her even while having memories of another life that's not her own running through her mind? Will the Doctor even be able to be around Kore now without constantly being reminded of Clara? Will things ever be the same again for any of our crew? Plus River and Rory are finally transferred to their new bodies at last. Will the procedure go as planned? **


	7. The Ghost of Clara

CHAPTER 7

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

Thank you for your favorites, follows, and reviews.

THE GHOST OF CLARA

Kore didn't know what to do or say as everyone around her was either openly weeping or just staring off into space with a shell-shocked expression on their faces. She wanted to comfort the Doctor and Susan but somehow felt as if that was no longer her place since she had become almost a stranger to them now.

Or maybe it was because they had become strangers to her.

She had missed out on so much. She had completely missed both of their lives, and they were now almost completely different people from the ones that she remembered knowing from what to her was only an hour ago. They had changed just as all people do through their lives, and she hadn't been there to witness or be a part of any of it. Now there was no way that she could ever undo that since it was a fixed point in time.

She didn't know what to do or say to anyone so she decided to make herself useful instead and bury herself in her work. She remembered from Clara's memories that they had come there to give River and Rory new android bodies so she decided to focus on that while she let the others have some time to move on from Clara's loss.

She hesitantly approached the holograms of River and Rory and said, "Hello, I'm Kore. I'd like to help you transfer to your new bodies if that's alright. I'm an expert on robotics, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence. I excelled in all of that back at the Academy on Gallifrey so I think that I should be able to finish the job for you with no further problems."

"I'm Professor River Song but then I suppose that you already know that if you know what we've been doing here. How much of Clara's memories do you have?" River asked curiously.

Kore looked disturbed by that question as she said, "All of them as near as I can tell. I can see her whole life from her earliest memories to her very last ones when she was looking at the Doctor as she lay dying. She could feel me trying to save her, and she knew that I probably wouldn't be able to do it. Her last thoughts were a hope that I didn't blame myself for it."

"You shouldn't. There was nothing else that you could have done," Rory said sympathetically.

"I feel like I should have been able to do something though. If I had just been quicker or tried harder somehow, then maybe she'd still be here," Kore said.

"I know exactly how you're feeling. That's how every nurse or doctor feels when they lose a patient. You can't blame yourself though when you know that you did your best. You just have to move on or you'll burn yourself out if you don't," Rory advised her.

"I just don't understand why this had to happen. Why was my life completely turned upside down and ripped away from me so that I have no chance of ever getting it back and yet I got to live on while Clara who should have had this whole great future ahead of her had to die? It doesn't make sense. It's just all such a waste," Kore said in a mournful tone.

"You should really talk to him. I'd do it if I had a body," River said as she looked at the Doctor who sat to himself in the far corner of the room with his head bowed in sorrow.

"Maybe you still can once I get finished here. I can't do it. Haven't you noticed how he's acted around me ever since Clara died? He . . . He won't even look at me now because I remind him of her. It hurts him even to look at me now because we have the same face. I'll never have him back again because I'm always going to remind him of losing her. Susan, poor Susan, is blaming herself for everything when it's in no way her fault. This is just going to devastate her because I know that she and Clara had become very close. I still can't believe that she blamed herself for what happened to me. I never wanted that for her. It seems that all I've done is bring nothing but misery to the people that I love the most," Kore said in an emotional voice.

"Stop that. You didn't do anything, got it? Why don't you just wait on working on this for a while and go talk to them first? They both need you right now even if the Doctor will never admit it," Amy said as she joined them.

"No, I can't. I can't stand to see the pain in his eyes when he looks at me now," Kore protested.

"Well, just get over it and do it anyway. We don't always get to do what we want you know? Sometimes we have to do things that we really don't want to because we have to," Amy said in an angry voice.

Kore couldn't help but smile at her as she said, "You're almost as bossy as I am. I'll just wait though. I want to do this first while I try and think of what to say."

Amy frowned but said nothing. She then left them and went over to the Doctor. Kore could see her briefly talking to him and then watched her leave in frustration when the Doctor wouldn't respond to her. She then watched the same thing happen again more or less when Amy tried to talk to Susan.

It tore Kore's hearts apart not to at least try to talk to them, but she really thought that she would do more harm than good if she did at that moment. Plus if she was being honest with herself, she was also afraid. She was afraid of what might happen if she did.

So instead she continued to fix the holes that had been left in the android bodies even as she completely removed the last of the Dalek programming from them. She was also being very careful to search for traces of any other leftover surprises that the Daleks might have left behind. She wanted this to work without any further problems so much because she wanted at least one good thing to come out of this day.

That way the day wouldn't have to be completely defined by loss.

Then she was completely surprised as Edwin Bracewell finally came back online and looked at her in puzzlement as he said, "Clara, Amy didn't tell me that you had knowledge of robotics."

Kore hesitated and then said, "That's because she didn't know about it. I know enough to get by. I'm sure that I'm not as knowledgeable as you are though."

It had been a spur of the moment decision to just go along with his wrong assumption of her identity instead of having to go through with the whole gut-wrenching explanation of who she really was and what had happened to Clara. She was already depressed enough without having to do that too.

Bracewell looked at what Kore had done so far and nodded in approval as he said, "You look like you're doing a good enough job at fixing things here that I should just stay out of it. I might just do more harm than good if any leftover Dalek programming were to take control of me once again while I'm working on them. I'll just let you do the rest."

"No, that's alright. You don't have to do that," Kore said.

"It's best this way believe me. I'll just stand over here out of the way unless you need me, but judging from the work that you've done so far I rather doubt that," Bracewell insisted as he moved away from her and let her continue her work by herself.

Amy refused to just let it go though as she said as soon as Bracewell was out of earshot, "Why did you do that? Why didn't you just tell him the truth?"

"It would hurt too much to have to explain it. Besides I thought that I might as well get used to it now because I'm going to have to pose as Clara a few more times soon," Kore said.

"Why is that? Why do you want to be Clara so badly? You're not going to start pretending to be her all of the time now are you? That would just be wrong somehow," Amy said.

Kore shook her head as she said, "It's not that I want to be her. I just feel like I owe it to her to tie up all of the loose ends of her life somehow. I'm going to tell her family and the people at her school that she's quitting and moving to America for a job that she was offered there because the truth is just going to be way too hard to explain to them especially with me having the same face."

"Don't you think that her Dad might start to wonder eventually why she never calls him from America?" Amy asked with a frown.

Kore sighed as she said, "I don't want to hurt them, okay? I don't know what else to do."

"You could try telling them the truth, Grandmother. I think that they deserve that," Susan said as she finally joined the conversation now.

"They don't even know that she's traveling with an alien through time and space so there's no way that they're going to believe me, Susan. They'll just think that I've gone mad. They'll never believe that I'm not really her," Kore said.

Susan said nothing further. She just looked away from her in sadness and became silent which finally made Kore stop working at last and talk to her.

"Susan, what happened wasn't your fault. You know that, right? Clara didn't blame you for it. In fact, she was thinking about how you would react even as she died. She was worried about that because she didn't want you to get upset. She cared a lot about you, Susan, and she didn't want to cause you any needless pain," Kore reassured her.

Susan looked up at her with a small smile as she said, "That sounds like her. She was very sweet and caring, Grandmother. You would have liked her. She was always very good to me."

"I'm glad. Susan, I never wanted you to feel guilty about what happened to me either. That was in no way your fault, understand?" Kore said.

Susan nodded but it was clear from her face that she didn't really believe it. That was when Kore finally wrapped her arms around her and hugged her tightly as she tried to make her feel better about everything.

Even as she did so, she could see the Doctor briefly watching her with a smile of approval on his face and then quickly looking away once he realized that she had noticed him. She sighed as she realized that he was nowhere close to getting to the point where he could talk to her about all of this yet.

"He likes to brood about things a lot doesn't he? Was he always like that?" Amy asked.

"Yes, for as long as I've known him. He's always become lost in himself whenever something was bothering him. It seems that he's gotten much worse about that now though," Kore said with a brief smile.

"It happened after he lost you, Grandmother. He became much darker and so much sadder. He blamed himself for it just as I did," Susan said.

Kore kissed her forehead as she said in a sad voice, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for ruining both of your lives."

"You didn't do anything, Grandmother. It was never your fault. You were just trying to save Grandfather's life. I would have done the same thing in your place. In fact, I often wish that I had so that he wouldn't have lost you," Susan admitted.

Kore shook her head as she said, "Well, I for one am glad that it didn't happen that way. I never would have been able to get over that, Susan. Neither of us would have."

"You all just need to stop all of this blaming yourselves business right now. Nothing that happened was any of your faults. If you want to blame someone, blame the stupid Great Intelligence already. He was the one who actually did it all. Blame him and stop moping all the time about it!" Amy finally said in an aggravated voice.

Kore smiled her first real smile that day as she said, "Okay already. Message received and understood, Red."

Amy and Susan both looked at her in complete surprise while Kore felt just as surprised as they were as she said, "I don't know why I called you that. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset anyone."

"No, that's okay. Don't worry about it," Amy reassured her.

Susan meanwhile couldn't help but hope that that had meant something. She didn't want to get her hopes up, but a small part of her had a rekindled sense of hope now.

Perhaps Clara wasn't quite gone after all. Maybe some small part of her had survived in her grandmother in some way.

"Go back to finishing the repairs, Grandmother. I'm alright. I think that Grandfather will be too eventually," Susan reassured her.

"I hope so," Kore said as she gave the Doctor one last worried look before she went back to finishing up the last bits of work that she needed to do on the androids.

Even as she did so, she felt sure that her life would never be the same again even if he did eventually get over Clara's loss. She felt sure that he would go back to River now instead of reuniting with her because being with her would hurt him too much.

She silently cursed the Great Intelligence for that because she knew that even as he had lost he had still succeeded by forever altering her life completely. It seemed that in the end he had wound up winning after all.

Soon Kore's work was done and she was certain now that all traces of the Daleks had been removed from the androids including the gunstick and the eyestalk which she had removed just in case there was any hidden programming that she hadn't caught yet. She was certain that she had found everything though and that now everything was going to go smoothly from this point forward.

"They're both ready as soon as you two want to transfer your consciousness to them," Kore finally said to River and Rory.

That was when the Doctor crossed the room to join them at last as he said, "I'll supervise that. First we'll keep a back-up of your minds just in case the transference goes wrong. It shouldn't be much longer now, Amy."

The Doctor briefly smiled at Kore as he walked past her, and she was glad that at least he wasn't ignoring her completely now. She began to hope that maybe they could at least return to talking to one another one day if nothing else.

Amy had noticed this as well and said, "When this is over, I want you to talk to her, Raggedy Man. She's really upset and she thinks that her life's been completely ruined. You have to convince her that it hasn't. Plus I think she thinks that you're always going to think of Clara whenever you look at her now. You have to get all of that out of her head as soon as possible and reassure her that you still love her and care about her."

The Doctor didn't look at her as he prepared the bodies for the consciousness transference while he said, "Of course I love her. I'll always love her."

"Why don't you try telling her that then? She might not know that, you know? Not everyone can translate silent moody Doctor like I can," Amy said.

"She is my wife, Amy. Of course she knows my moods," The Doctor shot back.

"That might not be necessarily true anymore. You've changed a bit since she last saw you, remember?" Amy insisted.

"I've changed quite a few times since then actually," The Doctor said.

"That's my point exactly," Amy said.

"Fine, Pond. I'll talk to her later then," The Doctor said.

"You really have to mean it, Doctor. No Rule Number One. Not this time," Amy insisted.

The Doctor said nothing and Amy could only hope that she had finally gotten through to him. If she hadn't, then she was just getting started on trying to get the Doctor to talk to Kore. She was not going to let this ruin their lives. She owed it to Clara not to let that happen because she knew that she wouldn't want that.

Even as she thought about Clara, Amy's heart filled with sorrow. She missed her so much. She wished that she had told her just how much that she had come to care about her while she was still alive. She would always regret not letting her know that now.

Amy was surprised when she felt Kore's hand on her shoulder and heard her say, "She knew, Amy. She knew and she loved you too."

Amy nodded with a sad smile on her face, and the two women embraced. The Doctor forced himself to look away from this as he finished setting up the connections between the TARDIS and CAL to the androids. He was now ready to get started at last.

This just had to work. He wasn't sure that he could take anything else bad happening today.

Okay, Rory, River, it's go time. I have both of you backed-up just in case this doesn't work so don't worry. Cross your fingers and hold your breath, Ponds, because here we go," The Doctor said as he used his sonic screwdriver to begin the transference of consciousness.

Amy looked on in silent anticipation now as she watched this and hoped against hope that everything was going to be alright now. She began to smile as both androids' eyes opened as soon as the transference finished.

"Doctor, I think it worked," Amy said.

River looked at all of them in silence for a moment and then said, "Who are you?"

"What?" Amy asked as her mouth dropped open in shock.

Rory looked confused as well as he said, "I don't know who they are either. In fact, I don't even remember who I am."

Then he looked at Amy and smiled as he said, "I definitely wished that I remember you though because you're the most beautiful woman that I've ever seen."

Amy managed to somehow smile and yet still look troubled at the same time as she said, "How would you know? You can't remember anything. Well, something's definitely wrong for sure, Doctor. Rory's never been that smooth with his pick-up lines."

"This is really interesting. It seems that this is Rory in his natural default setting, Amy. Whatever made him so cautious and nervous around you all of his life must have been produced from his environment instead of his genetics. It probably came about from a lifetime of being around you and your . . . aggressive personality," The Doctor said.

"I'll show you aggressive if you don't get this fixed, Doctor," Amy said in an irritated tone.

River smiled at the Doctor now as she said in a flirtatious tone, "Well, hello. I really hope that you and I are much more than friends. If we're not, then how soon can I change that?"

The Doctor looked back at Kore with concern to see her looking very uncomfortable with this as he said, "Now's not the time, River."

"It seems like a good time to me," River said as she moved closer and closer to him.

That was when Kore surprised everyone especially herself as she suddenly got in River's way and said, "Back away, Curly. You definitely don't want to go there."

"Oh, really? What are you going to do about it if I don't?" River asked with a smug smile on her face.

"You keep hitting on him and you'll find out," Kore said as she assumed a fighting stance.

"Kore, what are you doing? You don't know how to fight. You've never been in a fight in your life," The Doctor said in concern as he quickly got in-between his first and second wives.

Kore looked at him in confusion as she said in an upset tone, "I don't know, Theta. I honestly don't know what I'm doing. I'm not sure about anything anymore."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know that she had problems," River apologized.

"She doesn't have problems. She's just upset. We all are. We . . . We all lost someone that we really loved today. You'd remember that if the transference hadn't gone wrong. I think that I can fix it though. I believe that I know what happened," The Doctor said as he changed a setting on the sonic.

As he aimed the sonic at River and Rory, he smiled briefly in satisfaction and said, "Yes, that's it. I didn't have the right polarity. It should always be reversed. How could I make such a stupid mistake?"

"Maybe you were just a little bit distracted," Kore said as she put a comforting arm around him.

The Doctor smiled at her and put his arm around her even as River said, "I remember now. It finally worked. I was half afraid that with you in charge that I was going to wind up thinking that I was a chicken."

Amy smiled with joy even as she said to Rory, "How about you? Do you remember everything now?"

Rory smiled and nodded as he said, "You're still the most beautiful woman that I've ever seen though."

"That's more like it, Mr. Pond," Amy said as she kissed him.

Then she began to cry as she realized that this was the first time that she had kissed him in years. Rory immediately knew what was bothering her and put his arms around her while he gently pulled her close to him.

"It's alright, Amy. Everything's alright now," Rory said in a soft voice as he retuned her kiss.

"I only wish that were true," The Doctor said sadly as both River and Kore looked at him with uncertainty.

"Cheer up, Chin Boy. It's not as bad as all that," Kore said in a gentle tone as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

The Doctor looked at her in shock as he realized that Kore had looked and sounded just like Clara when she had done that.

Kore became embarrassed as she said, "I don't know why I did that. I'm sorry."

"It looks like more of Clara survived than just her memories, Doctor. I knew that she was tougher than that," River said with a small smile.

The Doctor looked at Kore in concern as he said, "I'm going to have to reestablish our mental link, Kore, so that I can see just what's happening in your mind. You're alternating between personalities too much."

"Kind of like how I did when you possessed me, Doctor. That means that Clara's still alive in there somewhere doesn't it?" Amy said hopefully.

"Not necessarily, Pond. It could just be a trace of her psychic imprint that was left behind when Kore tried to merge with her. If that's all it is, then I may have to . . . remove it so that it doesn't unbalance Kore's mind. I don't think that we should get our hopes up until we're sure," The Doctor said.

"I'll do what I like. I think that she's still in there if you'll just go looking for her," Amy said stubbornly.

"Even if she is, it's still not like things will ever be the same again," The Doctor said.

"What do you mean?" Amy asked.

It was Kore who answered as she said, "Her body was near death when I merged with her, Amy. Even if her mind is still alive in mine somewhere, she'll never have her own life again. She'll always be a part of me."

"Why? Why can't you just separate from her and heal her in the sick bay?" Amy asked confused.

"Her body was too far gone. The instant that we separated it would put such a strain on her that she would die within seconds," Kore said.

"Then what good did merging with her do?" Amy asked.

"I was trying to at least save her mind so that we could make an android body for her. Or maybe I could have offered her mine," Kore said as she looked away from the Doctor.

"I would never ask you to do that, "The Doctor said.

"I just thought that you might be happier with her in charge. You love her. I know you do. You've long since moved past me," Kore said.

"Yes, I love her but I also love you too. I've never stopped loving you," The Doctor said as he took her in his arms and gave her a tender kiss.

Then he quickly pulled away from her looking guilty as Kore said, "It's okay. She'd understand. I know she would."

"Kore, I'm so confused right now. I'm not sure how I feel or what I want. I do love you but . . . I'm just so conflicted," The Doctor admitted.

"It's alright. I understand, Doctor. You started out with one woman that you loved and now you suddenly have three. That would make anyone wonder who they cared for the most. You just take your time and think it through, alright?" Kore said even though deep inside she wanted him to choose her.

Part of her felt terrible for that.

"I'm so sorry about this," The Doctor said.

"It's okay," Kore said in a gentle tone.

River looked away from them with sadness as she began to wonder if either she or Kore had any real chance with him now. After all, how could you compete with a ghost?

**Next: The Doctor reestablishes his mental link with Kore as he tries to search for any traces of Clara still within her mind. What if anything will he find there? Plus Kore meets with Clara's father. What will she say to him? **


	8. Wrapping Up Loose Ends

CHAPTER 8

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

Thank you for your favorites, follows, and reviews.

WRAPPING UP LOOSE ENDS

"Good bye, Edwin, and thank you so much," Amy said as she kissed Edwin Bracewell's cheek as she and the Doctor prepared to leave him behind back in 1941.

Bracewell looked embarrassed as he said, "It was more Clara's doing than mine. I'm the one who accidentally turned them into Dalek puppets so I shouldn't receive too much gratitude I don't think."

"I'll give out whatever praise I want, Edwin. You don't realize it yet but your letters to me are going to help me through a really hard time in my life one day when I lose Rory. I should be thanking you just for that alone. Thank you for always being there when I needed you," Amy said in a heartfelt voice.

Bracewell smiled and nodded as he said, "I'll gladly accept your thanks then, and I'll be sure to always write to you regularly from now on."

"You'd better," Amy said with a warm smile.

She waved one last good bye to him and then stepped into the TARDIS. Just as she entered it, the Doctor dematerialized.

"What?" Amy asked as she found the Doctor staring at her for a moment while she stood there in front of the doors.

After a moment of silence, the Doctor finally smiled and said, "I just keep expecting you to suddenly fade away like an illusion. It still doesn't seem real to me yet. I'm just so glad that I finally have all of my Ponds back again."

"I'm glad to be back, Raggedy Man. Believe me. I've never stopped thinking about you and wondering exactly what trouble that you were getting into without me," Amy said.

Then she suddenly raced up to him and hugged him tightly as she said, "Thank you for your part in bringing Rory and River back to me."

She then released him and said, "Now do me one last favor, Doctor, and bring Clara back too."

The Doctor's face fell as he said, "Amy, I'm not sure that there's any Clara to bring back."

"She's there somewhere, Doctor. I can feel it. Now go do your mind link thingy with Kore and bring my sister back. Do it right now," Amy insisted impatiently.

"Sister?" The Doctor asked having heard her call Clara that before.

"I feel like she was the sister that I never had and always wanted. I wish that I'd told her that," Amy said sadly.

"She knew exactly how you felt about her, Amy. I've already told you that," Kore said as she suddenly spoke up from across the Console Room where she had remained silent up until now.

"Yes, I know, but it's just not the same as actually saying it to her, Raggedy Woman," Amy said.

"Raggedy Woman?" Kore asked in amusement.

"Well, you're his wife so that makes you the Raggedy Woman to his Raggedy Man, doesn't it?" Amy said with a very brief smile that Kore knew that she really didn't feel.

"How about calling me Raggedy Girl instead?" Kore said as she played along with her.

"You're probably older than even I am though so that didn't sound right," Amy admitted.

"If that's your sneaky little way of asking me my age, I'll just say that I'm not a kid anymore and leave it at that. I'm still very young by Gallifreyan standards though so I think I prefer Raggedy Girl," Kore said with a warm smile.

"Really? You actually want her to call you that?" The Doctor asked her in surprise.

"Yes, because that's how I know that she likes me. She gave me a nickname," Kore said happily.

"Of course I like you. You're just like him except you're not completely mad," Amy said.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you, Legs. I've been known to be a bit out there myself on occasion. I mean you have to be at least a little bit mad to marry a man like him," Kore said with a huge smile.

"Legs?" Amy said in surprise.

"I thought I'd give you a nickname too. Theta said that he called you that once and it seems to be very appropriate to me. You don't like it?" Kore asked hesitantly.

"Not particularly but I'll take it because I'm sure that you can't really like Raggedy Girl as much as you're letting on that you do. I guess that makes us even then," Amy said smiling at her before hugging her.

Kore was grateful that Amy had accepted her the way that she had because up until now she had been half afraid that Amy would blame her for what happened to Clara somehow. It was important to her that the two of them become good friends because she knew exactly how much that she meant to the Doctor and to Clara as well.

She supposed that she was going to be spending the rest of her life doing things that she knew Clara would want. It was her only real way of making it up to her for failing to save her. She supposed it was her penance in a way for not being just a bit faster and saving her in time.

The Doctor could see the look of guilt on Kore's face and his hearts instantly ached for her as he said, "Kore, I think it's time. We need to reestablish our link so that I can see if anything of Clara is still inside of you."

"Well, it's about time, Doctor. You've put that off long enough I think," Amy said.

"Amy, could you go check on Rory and River for me? I need to make sure that they're not suffering any side effects from the transference. They're both sleeping a very long time which is kind of worrying since they really don't need to sleep anymore," The Doctor said.

"Their minds are still human or human plus in River's case, Doctor, so they do need sleep actually even if their bodies don't," Kore said.

"I'd still like for Amy to check up on them just the same though," The Doctor said as he gave Kore a pointed look that told her just to agree with him.

Amy caught that look as well and said, "I get it, Doctor. You want to link with her in peace. Alright, I'll go. I'll do anything as long as you get Clara back."

"Amelia, you really have to be prepared for the idea that even I can't save her," The Doctor said in a worried tone.

"I know what you're saying and I understand it. I really do. I just really don't want to give up hope until I have to, okay? I mean look what happened with Kore. You got her back, right? If that can happen after all of this time then anything's possible," Amy said hopefully.

The Doctor smiled and kissed her forehead while he hugged her as he said, "That's my Pond. You never give up no matter how lost the cause."

"Why else do you think that I've stuck around you for so long?" Amy joked.

The Doctor pretended to pout as he said, "That's not funny, Pond."

Kore however suddenly started laughing her head off which made Amy smile as she said, "Well, she certainly seems to think so."

"You know you remind me a lot of my Gran, Amy. She has a wicked sense of humor like that too," Kore said.

Then she suddenly froze as she said, "I mean Clara's grandmother not mine."

Amy smiled with more hope filling her heart by the moment as she said, "Right, that sounds like you need to get to the bonding right away, Doctor. I'll just leave you two to it then."

As soon as she left, the Doctor said, "I'm really worried about her. She's not taking this well at all. She and Clara became almost inseparable in the last few months. I think her friendship with Clara was the only thing that kept her from worrying so much about Rory when I was trying to think of a way of bringing him back."

"She's going to be alright, Doctor, no matter what we find out about Clara. I'll make sure of it," Kore reassured him.

The Doctor smiled and pulled her close to him as he gave her a deep passionate kiss for several minutes. Kore hesitated for a moment and then she finally eagerly returned his kiss with just as much emotion. Both of them put so much of themselves into the kiss that guilt instantly covered the Doctor's face as soon as he pulled away from her.

"I've wanted to do that for a long time now because I love you, Kore. Yet I feel so guilty as if I'm betraying both River and Clara somehow. I needed you to know exactly how much that I care about you though especially before asking you to do something as intimate as reestablishing our link again," The Doctor said.

Kore smiled as she said, "I love you too and I understand that this is still hard for you. I'm not exactly complaining about that kiss though, Chinny. Now that was a good one. You really know how to sweep someone off their feet don't you? I knew that this was a snog box."

The Doctor frowned as Kore said in frustration, "I did it again!"

"Let's reestablish the link now so that I can stop this. It's not fair to you or Clara," The Doctor said in a heartbroken voice.

Kore gave him a tender kiss as she said, "It's going to be okay, Theta."

The Doctor looked as unconvinced of that as ever though as he put his hands on the sides of Kore's face and started to reestablish his link with her that had been broken when she had disappeared so long ago. Kore eagerly met him halfway and the two of them began to share minds once more as their bond was once more reestablished with all of its prior strength so that each of them would now know each other's every thought, memory, or emotion if they so wanted.

Kore now gave the Doctor complete and total access to every part of her mind without reservation since she never wanted to keep any secrets from him. He searched through each and every corner of her psyche while he searched for any and all traces of Clara there. All that he could find were Clara's memories and the emotions that went with them though.

Other than that there was no trace of his Impossible Girl left at all anymore.

The Doctor began to silently weep even as he searched Kore's mind over and over again just to make sure. He owed it to Clara to make sure that she was really gone before he gave up on her.

Then he finally stopped and retreated from Kore's mind after several minutes of fruitless searching. He had finally accepted at last that all that was left of his Clara were her memories.

"She's gone. She's really gone," The Doctor said as he began to sob openly now.

Kore held him tightly and kissed him as she said, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

The Doctor returned her kiss even as he sought comfort in her arms. Kore could already feel a sense of hope in her hearts that maybe they were rekindling their relationship in that moment. She still felt a sense of guilt about that but not as much as she had before.

She knew that Clara would just want him to be happy and she was sure that River would too just based off of what she little that she already knew of her. That didn't mean that this was going to be easy for any of them though if their relationship really was about to be restarted once more.

They heard Amy gasp in pain behind them as she said, "She's really gone?"

"Yes, Amelia. I'm sorry. All I could find was her memories and nothing else," The Doctor admitted.

"Why is Kore acting like her though? Surely that means something, right?" Amy asked stubbornly.

"It's probably just because she feels guilty for what happened to her. It's causing her to act like her sometimes," The Doctor said.

Amy obviously still didn't want to believe it as she shook her head and said, "That doesn't make sense."

"It's the only thing that it could be, Amy," The Doctor said.

"I . . . I have to go lie down for a while," Amy said in a sickened voice.

"It's alright, Amy. Go ahead and sleep. You've had a long day. We all have," The Doctor said in a sympathetic voice.

Amy turned to leave but she still wasn't giving up. She knew from experience that sometimes something that was lost could come back. She had to believe that that was still going to happen for Clara too.

One day Clara would come back.

Kore sighed as she watched the heartbroken Amy go. It only reinforced her decision not to try to tell anyone else the truth about Clara. It also made her want to wrap up all of the loose ends of Clara's life as quickly as possible so that the rest of them could continue with theirs.

The Doctor had already guessed what she was thinking by the expression on his face so he said, "You still want to go to Clara's time don't you? Are you sure? You don't have to do this."

"Yes, I do. I owe it to Clara to give the people that she cared about some sense of closure without actually breaking their hearts. They deserve that. Clara deserves that," Kore said.

"When something like this happens, I usually just leave and let things sort themselves out. I never ever look back. Maybe you should do that too," The Doctor said.

"I can't. I won't. Once you would have felt the same. What's happened to you?" Kore said as she looked at him as if he were a stranger to her now.

In so many ways he was.

The Doctor looked every bit his age in that moment as he looked at her with sad, weary eyes and said, "I've lost so much, Kore. So many people that I loved are nothing but memories now. I can't look back anymore because it hurts too much. I have to forget so that I can keep moving on."

"Is this about Gallifrey? I understand why you did it, and I know that for you of all people to do that meant that there was no other way. I can't even imagine what that's done to you, but you can't let it change who you are. You can't forget the promise that you made when you took your name. Now that I'm here I won't let you. Now take me back to Clara's house. After I've contacted everyone she knows and told them that she's leaving for America then we can start to finally sort out our own feelings for one another, Theta," Kore said.

"It may not be that simple," The Doctor warned.

"I know," Kore said as she gave him a sympathetic kiss on the cheek.

The Doctor hit a button on the console and moments later they materialized in Clara's home. To the Doctor, it seemed so abandoned and empty now almost like . . . a tomb.

Kore saw the look on his face and tried to shake him out of the potential funk that he was preparing to enter as she said, "So you had Clara on your speed dial, eh? I should have known."

The Doctor protested as he said, "It wasn't like that! Up until lately we were just friends,"

"Sure, Doctor. Sure," Kore teased him as the two of them left the TARDIS hand in hand.

Kore immediately went to Clara's closet and put on one of Clara's favorite outfits there while the Doctor waited patiently outside. They were still reestablishing their relationship, whatever that would turn out to be, so he didn't feel right about watching her change just yet.

Minutes later, Kore emerged looking just like Clara and the Doctor's breath caught in his throat as she said in a perfect imitation of Clara's accent, "So how do I look, Mr. Chin?"

"You look . . . amazing," The Doctor said as her eyes bulged at the tight skirt that she was wearing even as at the same time his hearts ached while he remembered the last time that Clara had worn that outfit when they fought the Cybermen.

"I'm so sorry, Theta. I know that this is bothering you but I wanted to practice being her for a minute before I went to see everyone. Am I doing alright? Do I have her walk and her accent down right?" Kore said in Clara's voice.

"Yes, it's . . . perfect," The Doctor said as he tried not to tear up again.

"I swear that I'm not doing this to hurt you. I just need to do this for her," Kore said in a guilty voice.

"I know," The Doctor said.

Suddenly the door to Clara's house was opened by someone with a key as Kore and the Doctor looked at one another in surprise. What was going on?

Then they saw that it was Clara's father and grandmother and Kore's hearts both began racing. She hadn't been prepared for this just yet. She had needed a little more time to work up the courage to go see them.

"Clara, there you are. I haven't heard from you in days and your school hasn't either. Where have you been? Everyone's been worried sick about you," Dave Oswald said with concern as he eyed the Doctor suspiciously.

"I think it's pretty obvious what Clara's been up to, Dave," Clara's grandmother said with a chuckle.

"Stop it, Mum. You don't know that for sure," Dave said even as he continued to stare at the Doctor.

Kore began to shake with fear as she realized that this was it. She had to tell them something either now or never. The Doctor took her hand and squeezed it to reassure her which caused her to smile and her confidence to soar.

Clara's family didn't fail to notice this as Dave asked, "Clara, just how serious are you and this young man here?"

Kore smiled as she finally knew what to tell them and said, "Dad, I know that this is going to come as a bit of a shock but he's my husband."

"What?" Dave asked with his jaw dropping.

"That may not have been the best thing to tell them," The Doctor said as Dave looked at him with murder in his eyes.

"I'm so happy for you, Clara. I always hoped that you'd find someone someday. So you eloped, didn't you? That's where you were, wasn't it? On your honeymoon," Clara's grandmother guessed.

Kore ran with this as she said, "Yes, Gran. That's exactly what we did. We eloped and went on our honeymoon. I'm so sorry that I didn't tell anyone what was happening. It's just that it all kind of happened at once and one thing led into another until we found ourselves married. I was actually just about to come and tell everyone all about it before you came. I mean I have to if I'm going to quit my job and go to America, right?"

"What?" Dave asked in shock.

"America? Why do you have to go so far away for, Clara?" Clara's grandmother said in alarm.

Kore began to feel so very badly for her as she said, "It's my husband's job, Gran. John, that's his name believe it or not John Smith, has a job that requires him to live in America part of the time and to travel extensively the rest of the time. We won't be able to stay here because of that I'm afraid so I'll have to leave my job and move out of here now. I'm sorry, Gran. I know that this isn't coming as the best of news to you, but I have to follow my heart, don't I?"

The Doctor looked at her in surprise because this sounded so much like Clara talking right now.

"Does he make you happy?" Clara's grandmother asked.

"Yes, he does. I love him with all of my heart," Kore said meaning it.

"Then go, Clara. Go and don't look back. Try to spare a thought or two for your grandmother sometimes though, eh?" Clara's grandmother said as she hugged her.

"I will. I promise," Kore said as she began to cry.

The Doctor looked at her in surprise yet again. These didn't seem like the tears of someone just being sympathetic to another person's feelings. These seemed like real tears borne out of a true emotional connection to Clara's family.

"Clara, you should have told me about this. How long have you even known this man? How do you know that you can even trust him?" Dave asked.

"I've known him for a long time now, Dad. I trust him completely because he's the best person that I've ever known and I know that he'd rather die than to ever hurt me," Kore said as she took the Doctor's hand once again for emotional support.

"Are you sure about this?" Dave asked even as he noticed just by looking at the two of them just how devoted that they were to each other.

"More sure than I've ever been about anything," Kore said.

Dave could tell by how the Doctor looked at her that he was deeply in love with her. He remembered seeing that look in Ellie's eyes whenever she had looked at him, and he knew that it had to have been in his own eyes as well once.

He swallowed all of his misgivings and said, "Good luck, Clara. If you ever need anything or just want to talk, please call. I'm always here," Dave reassured her.

"I know. I love you, Dad," Kore said as she hugged Dave tightly which made the Doctor wonder about her behavior yet again.

Was it possible that he had been wrong after all? Kore had never been this good of an actress and lying had always been too against her nature for her to do it this well so quickly.

"I love you too, Gran," Kore said as she hugged Clara's grandmother with tears in her eyes.

"You take care of yourself, Clara," Clara's grandmother said in an emotional voice.

"Take care of her, son," Dave said to the Doctor.

"I will. I promise," The Doctor said even as his hearts went into his throat because he knew that he had completely failed to protect the real Clara.

Maybe that was why he kept looking for something of her to be there in Kore that probably wasn't.

After Clara's family left, Kore broke down in the Doctor's arms and said, "I don't want to go. I should stay here with my family."

"They're not your family, Kore," The Doctor reminded her.

"I just feel so close to them though. It's very hard to let them go," Kore said.

"You've only just met them," The Doctor said in disbelief.

"Somehow it doesn't feel like that," Kore admitted.

"Do you want to put off going to the school until tomorrow?" The Doctor asked.

"No, I need to do this now and get it over with before I lose my nerve," Kore insisted.

The Doctor nodded as he gestured for Kore to get back into the TARDIS. As they both reentered the Console Room, they were surprised to find River standing there searching through the TARDIS' computer. Kore then noticed with a sense of dread that the monitor was on, and she knew that River had just watched everything and had heard exactly how she felt about the Doctor.

"River, about what happened out there . . ." Kore started to say.

River looked at her with a small smile as she said, "You were just being honest. There's nothing wrong in that. It was obvious to Clara's father that the two of you were deeply in love or he would have put up more of a fight. It's obvious to me too."

"River, I . . ." The Doctor said.

"I know what you're going to say, Doctor. You're really not sure yet how you feel. You probably actually believe that, but I think that's it's obvious who you've already chosen. It's okay, Doctor. We had our time and it was a good one. I couldn't ask for any better than that," River said in a sad voice.

"River, I really don't know how I feel yet," The Doctor said.

"I do and I know you better than anyone, Doctor. What I just found out about Kore will only make sure that you choose her I think," River said.

"What are you talking about?" The Doctor asked.

"What I'm talking about, sweetie, is that according to the research that I've just done on every database that I can find Clara Oswald never existed before a certain point in time. According to them, she was never born. She just suddenly appears out of nowhere with no record of her ever having been delivered in a hospital, the back of a taxi cab, or anywhere at all. What's weird is that no one ever questions this fact or the fact that she seems to have appeared as an infant not long after the Oswalds were brought together by that leaf. It certainly wasn't nine months, Doctor. It was more like a couple of days. It was almost as if someone put together a ready-made family to hide her with more than it seems like a natural birth to me," River said.

"What are you saying?" The Doctor asked as he and Kore both looked at each other in confusion.

"I believe that Kore is more than just Clara's echo and always has been, Doctor. I think that somehow in some way that Clara was Kore and always had been even before she stepped into your timestream. How else did she survive being in it except that she was already a part of it by being married to you? How else could she open the TARDIS with a snap of her fingers other than the fact that the TARDIS was already attuned to her because she was a part of your wife? The TARDIS rejected her at first because it was sure that she was an imposter, but then once it realized the truth it welcomed her with open arms and even showed her your true name. Why else would it do that?" River theorized.

"That doesn't make sense though. How could Clara be me? We were both at the Library at the same time together until we merged, and I was only with the Great Intelligence for a few minutes in my own personal timeline. That's just not possible," Kore said.

"That's what we're going to find out before we start wrapping up Clara's life any further, Kore, because I think that River's right. Somehow in some way you have to be the same person. You felt too strong of an attachment to Clara's family just now for it not to mean something," The Doctor reasoned.

"How would we ever find out the truth though?" Kore asked.

"Well, you could try asking me," A familiar voice said behind them.

"You! Well, I should have known that it would be you behind all of this somehow, shouldn't I?" The Doctor said in disbelief.

"Hello, Doctor," The Master said.

"Koschei, what's going on here?" Kore asked in an upset voice.

The Master sighed before he began to explain.

**Next: The Master tells the whole story at last while Kore and the Doctor listen on in disbelief. What is the real truth about the connection between Kore and Clara and what does the Master have to do with it? How did he escape being trapped along with Gallifrey anyway after the events of The End of Time? All will be revealed next time.**


End file.
